Robert Thorne, PhD

Protein and gene therapies for central nervous system (CNS) disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and stroke have been limited by two related yet distinct problems. The first concerns the difficulty associated with delivering a protein, gene or drug delivery vector into the CNS across the barriers that separate the blood from brain interstitial and cerebrospinal fluids. The second concerns the uncertainty surrounding what happens on the brain side of these barriers once a substance is able to pass them. Surprisingly, little information exists to predict the distribution of such substances following their entry into the CNS. Dr. Thorne's research uses optical imaging to study extracellular diffusion in acute brain slices and in vivo; the long term goal is to reveal the precise mechanisms underlying the distribution of proteins, genes, viral vectors and nanoparticles inside the developing, adult and pathologic CNS. He is also active in areas related to: drug delivery to the brain; the nasal route for CNS delivery; therapeutic use of neurotrophic factors, cytokines and other biopharmaceutical products for neurological disorders; design/optimization of nanoparticles for CNS applications.  Dr. Thorne has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (University of Washington) and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Minnesota (2002), where he studied nasal pathways for CNS delivery with an emphasis on neurotrophic factors.  His postdoctoral training with Charles Nicholson (Department of Physiology & Neuroscience, NYU School of Medicine) from 2002-2008 focused on the diffusion of macromolecules and nanoparticles in brain tissue.  He is currently on the Faculty at NYU School of Medicine in the Department of Physiology & Neuroscience and is active in research and teaching medical neuroanatomy and physiology.  Dr. Thorne is an inaugural member of the steering council for the International Brain Barriers Society (www.ibbsoc.org/), an organization created to encourage, promote and advocate scientific and clinical research on biological barriers in the CNS.