Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr. Alexandra Joyner, Developmental Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY, USA, Autism Speaks Postdoctoral Research Fellow
January 2005-February 2007
Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr. Alexandra Joyner, Developmental Genetics Pro-gram, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. Alberta Heritage Postdoctoral Fellowship
January 2004-December 2004
Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab of Dr Derek Blake, Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Alberta Heritage Postdoctoral Fellowship
September 1999-December 2003
PhD Thesis 'Studies of Cerebellar Compartmentation', Lab of Dr Richard Hawkes, Department of Neuroscience, faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
September 1994-September 1999
BSc in Kinesiology, School of Kinesiology, Department of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
Publications:
Sillitoe, R.V., Hawkes, R. (2002). Whole mount immunohistochemistry: A high throughput screen for patterning defects in the mouse cerebellum. J Histochem and Cytochem, 50: 235-44.
Sanchez M, Sillitoe, R.V., Attwell, P.J.E, Ivarsson, M., Rahman, S, Yeo, C.H., Hawkes, R. (2002) Compartmentation of the rabbit cerebellar cortex. J Comp Neurol, 444: 159-73.
Sarna, J.R., Larouche, M., Rancourt, D., Sillitoe, R.V., Hawkes, R. (2003) Patterned Purkinje cell degeneration in mouse models of Niemann-Pick type C disease. J Comp Neurol, 456: 279-291.
Larouche M, Diep C, Sillitoe RV, Hawkes R (2003) The topographical anatomy of the cerebellum in the guinea pig, Cavia porcellus. Brain Res, 965: 1 59-169.
Jeong YG, Rosales JL, Marzban H, Sillitoe RV, Park DG, Hawkes R, Lee KY (2003) The cyclin-dependent kinase 5 activator, p39, is expressed in stripes in the mouse cerebellum. Neuroscience, 118: 323-334.
Sillitoe RV, Hulliger M, Dyck R, Hawkes R (2003) Antigenic compartmentation of the cat cerebellar cortex. Brain Res, 977: 1-15.
Sillitoe RV, Benson MA, Blake DJ, Hawkes R (2003) Abnormal dysbindin expression in cerebellar mossy fiber synapses in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. J Neurosci, 23: 6576-85.
Sillitoe RV, Kunzle H, Hawkes R (2003) Antigenic compartmentation of the cerebellum in a basal insectivore, the Madagascan hedgehog tenrec Echinops telfairi. J Anat, 203: 283-296.
Sillitoe RV, Malz C, Rockland K, Hawkes R (2004) Antigenic compartmentation of the primate and scandentid cerebellum: the common topography of zebrin II in Macaca mulatta and Tupaia belangerie. J Anat, 204: 257-269.
Marzban H, Sillitoe RV, Hoy M, Rafuse V, Hawkes R (2004) Abnormal HNK-1 expression in the cerebellum of an N-CAM null mouse. J Neurocytol, 33: 117-1130.
Benson MA, Sillitoe RV, Blake DJ (2004) Schizophrenia genetics: Dysbindin under the microscope. Trends in Neurosci, 27: 516-519.
Sillitoe RV , Marzban H, Larouche M, Zahedi S, Affani J, Hawkes R (2005) Conservation of the architecture of the anterior lobe vermis of the cerebellum across mammalian species. Prog Brain Res, 148: 283-297.
Blake DJ, Sillitoe RV (2006) Molecular and functional diversity of dystrobrevin-containing complexes. In Molecular Mechanisms of muscular Dystrophy. Ed. SJ Winder, pp 63-73. Landes Bioscience.
Esapa CT, Waite A, Locke M, Krauss M, McIlhinney RAJ, Sillitoe RV, Beesley PW, Blake DJ (2007) Myoclonus-dystonia-associated esarcoglycan missense mutations impair trafficking to the plasma membrane: modulation by ubiquitina-tion and torsinA. Human Mol Genet, 16: 327-342.
Sillitoe RV, Joyner AL (2007) Morphology, Molecular Codes, and Circuitry Produce the Three-Dimensional Complexity of the Cerebellum. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol, (in press).
Research Interests:
I am interested in understanding how the cerebellum develops regionally distinct domains that are seen throughout embryogenesis and also in the adult. Physiological experiments suggest that the functional organization of the cerebellum can be directly correlated to the underlying parasagittal molecular organization of the cerebellum. However, it is not clear why the cerebellum is partitioned into parasagittal domains. To start to answer this question, I have embarked upon several investigations that employ sophisticated mouse genetics techniques that will allow me to uncover the details of how parasagittal molecular domains de-velop, how different cell types contribute to parasagittal molecular domains, how circuitry develops around this organization, whether parasagittal molecular do-mains are developmentally linked to folia and finally how specific genetic defects alter one or all modes of cerebellar architecture and organization. Thus, the theme of my work is using genetic tools in mouse to uncover how molecular cues and structure are related in the developing nervous system and how this relationship provides the framework for brain function.
