Eleni A. Markakis, PhD, received her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Master of Arts in Biology from Bryn Mawr College, where she studied the development of chick forelimb motor pools in the laboratory of Margaret Hollyday, PhD. Her interest in neural development led her to the laboratory of Larry W. Swanson, PhD, at the University of Southern California, where she earned her PhD using neuroanatomical techniques to study “The spatiotemporal patterns of secretomotor neuron generation in the parvicellular neuroendocrine system.”
Eleni went on to perform two postdoctoral fellowships, the first at the Salk Institute, where she used her neuroanatomical expertise to show that newly-generated neurons in the adult hippocampus send appropriate axonal projections to field CA 3. There, she learned neural progenitor cell isolation and monolayer culture, a skill she refined to isolate adult neural progenitor cells from human brain, at Yale School of Medicine, where she studied re-myelination in animal models with Jeffery Kocsis, PhD, in the Department of Neurology as an associate research scientist.
Markakis was also recruited to a tenure-track faculty position as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine where she studied stem cell therapies for Parkinson’s Disease. She received funding for her research from National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the State of Connecticut Stem Cell Research Program.
A Cleveland native, Markakis returned home when she joined ǿմý School of Medicine as a clinical instructor and the assistant director for scientific programs for the Cleveland Brain Health Initiative.
On campus, she brings to the SPARC Team a wealth of knowledge in grant funding mechanisms and preparation, and a deep understanding of the science underlying the work.