Contact Information

Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
Children's Research Center
Developmental Biology
Box#204
2430 N Halsted
Chicago, IL 60614

Office: 773-755-6358
Lab: 773-7556358
FAX: 773-755-6385

Lab Contribution

6/99: - Left Fishell lab

11/94 - 5/99: Associate Research Scientist NYU School of Medicine/Skirball Institute, Laboratory of Dr. Gord Fishell. Studied dorsal ventral patterning of the embryonic telencephalon.

9/91 - 3/95: Post Doctoral Fellow Columbia University, Laboratory of Dr. James Manley. Studied mechanisms of RNA splicing.

9/83 - 9/90: Graduate Student Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY, Laboratory of Dr. Edward Johnson. Studied myoblast differentiation.

Current Work

Jhumku Kohtz joined the Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University/Children's Research Center as an Assistant Professor in June 1999. She is a faculty member in two graduate programs, the Northwestern University Institute for Neuroscience (NUIN) and the Integrated Graduate Program (IGP). Her lab is focused in two aims: 1. Studies of how forebrain patterning depends on Shh morphogenic gradients established through lipid-modification, 2. Studies of Evf2, ultraconserved non-coding RNA target of Shh signaling with transcription-regulating activity. She recently discovered that the Evf2 non-coding RNA complexes with Dlx homeodomain proteins and that Evf2 expression is critical for balanced gene expression in the Dlx 5/6 region. Future work includes determining the mechanism of non-coding RNA/homeodomain interactions and their role in dosage of genes critical for GABAergic interneurons. Studies are performed at the biochemical, genetic and behavioral levels.