Michelle Monje, Stanford University

Michelle Monje is an associate professor of neurology in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University. She studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms of postnatal neurodevelopment, including microenvironmental influences on neural precursor cell fate choice, in both normal neurodevelopment and disease states. Her focus areas are neuronal instruction of gliogenesis, cellular contributions to the neurogenic and gliogenic signaling microenvironment, molecular determinants of neural precursor cell fate, and the role of neural precursor cells in oncogenesis and repair mechanisms. As a practicing neurologist and neuro-oncologist, Monje is interested in the roles for neural precursor cell function and dysfunction in the origins of pediatric brain tumors and the consequences of cancer treatment. As a paradigm of pediatric gliogenesis, her lab has been focusing on brainstem tumors, whose spatial and temporal specificity bespeak an underlying developmental cause.