Fred H. Gage

Fred H. Gage (born 1950) is an American geneticist known for his discovery of stem cells in the adult human brain and his studies showing that certain environmental stimuli can contribute to the growth of new cells in the mammalian brain. Gage’s breakthrough findings, reported in the late 1990s, were contrary to scientific dogma at the time, which claimed that the brain, unlike tissues such as bone and skin, did not possess regenerative capabilities. In addition to advancing scientists’ understanding of the brain, the discoveries provided a basis for the investigation of stem-cell transplantation, gene therapy, and modulation of environment or physical activity as novel approaches for the treatment of diseases and disorders of the central nervous system.

Education and early career

Gage was educated in the liberal arts at St. Stephen’s School Rome. After graduating in 1968, he went to University of Florida, where he attended classes and worked in a brain research laboratory, carrying out his first electrophysiology experiments. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1972. At Johns Hopkins University, Gage pursued graduate studies and continued to study the brain. His research focused in part on understanding functional recovery and regenerative responses of neurons following the introduction of lesions in specific brain regions.

In 1976, after earning a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins, Gage went to Texas Christian University, where he worked as an associate director of the school’s neuroscience program. He left the university in 1981 after accepting a fellowship to study in Sweden with neuroscientist Anders Björklund, who was investigating the re-formation of neural pathways following brain lesioning. He subsequently served as an associate professor in the histology department at Lund University. In 1985 Gage returned to the United States to join the faculty in the department of neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where he began studies of gene therapy. He remained at UCSD until 1995, when he joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.

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Research on neurogenesis

After settling at the Salk Institute, Gage explored the question of whether the adult human brain has the capacity to generate new neurons. An initial step in that work was to confirm the existence of neurogenesis in the adult mouse brain. To do so, Gage and colleagues used various approaches, including immunocytochemistry and techniques to quantify cells and tissue structure in the brain. They also determined the influence of environmental stimulation on neurogenesis by placing one group of adult mice in small cages and a second group in a large complex (enriched) environment. After 45 days, the researchers collected the mice and examined their brains. Mice that had been in the enriched environment experienced a significant increase in the number of neurons in the region of the brain known as the hippocampus.

Next, Gage and colleagues obtained human brain tissue postmortem from terminally ill cancer patients who, prior to their death, had been treated with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) as a way of tracking tumour growth. BrdU becomes integrated into the DNA of actively replicating cells (e.g., stem cells). Hence, its presence in micrographs of tissue from the hippocampus served as evidence that immature cells—the only cells capable of actively dividing—were present in the brain. The discovery was reported in 1998.

Gage subsequently investigated possible mechanisms by which immature neurons in the adult brain are stimulated to differentiate into mature, functioning cells. Previous research indicated that physical exercise may be a stimulating factor for brain-cell growth. Using mice, Gage showed specifically that running (as opposed to swimming or maze learning) was capable of doubling the number of immature cells in the dentate gyrus of the mouse brain. The increase in cell number was comparable to the increase observed when mice were placed in an enriched environment. The findings provided key evidence for the influence of exercise on the ability of the mammalian brain to grow new neurons.

Gage’s discoveries helped ignite a new area of investigation centred on harnessing the mechanisms of neuronal regeneration to repair brain cells damaged by aging, trauma, or disease. He also explored neuronal changes associated with diseases such as depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. He and colleagues found that neural stem cells generated from reprogrammed skin cells of individuals with schizophrenia were affected by abnormalities in gene expression and in protein levels associated with oxidative stress. The findings shed light on developmental mechanisms that contribute to schizophrenia, raising the possibility for early detection and treatment of the disease.

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Awards and honours

Gage received numerous awards and honours during his career, including the Max Planck Research Prize (1999) and the Keio Medical Science Prize Award (2008). He was a fellow of multiple organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences (2003) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005), and served as president of the Society for Neuroscience (2002) and codirector of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind (2015– ).