Hanneke verstegen

Assistant Professor of Medicine

I am a neuroscientist with a broad background in neuroscience research and with specific training in molecular and cellular biology and behavioral and systems neuroscience. I have expertise in stereotaxic surgery techniques and the design and execution of experimental paradigms employing cutting edge neuroscience techniques, and mouse genetics.

I obtained my Ph.D. degree within the Neuroscience and Brain Technologies Department at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). My PhD thesis research involved elucidating signaling pathways and protein kinases that control synaptic vesicles to release their neurotransmitter content. Following conferral of my PhD I joined Dr. Bradford Lowell’s laboratory at BIDMC/ Harvard Medical School as a Postdoctoral Fellow. In the Lowell lab, I focused on understanding the ‘neural circuit basis’ for the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure, with a specific emphasis on the identification and characterization of neuronal cell subpopulations within specific nuclei of the hypothalamus. My training include the utilization of genetically engineered mice in combination with AAV technology, opto- and chemogenetics, and in vivo fiber photometry. My overarching goal was to link the activity of defined subpopulations of neurons with specific neurobehavioral and physiological responses.

My current research interests include the neural control of bladder function. Because disturbances in central nervous system regulation of bladder and urethral sphincter function can cause or contribute to lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), understanding these control circuits may lead to potential therapies. My lab’s research projects focus on identifying neuron populations involved in successful bladder functioning, their regulation by upstream targets and circuits and whether inhibitory input to this void-triggering pathway may allow urinary continence. Our studies aim to reveal how forebrain, brainstem and spinal inputs converge in the control of the bladder.

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Complete list of Publications

Selected Publications

  • Verstegen AMJ, Tish MM, Szczepanik L, Zeidel ML, and Geerling JG. (2020) Micturition video thermography in awake, behaving mice. J Neurosci Methods. 2020 Feb 1:331:108449 PubMed PMID: 31812917. [pdf]

  • Verstegen AMJ, Klymko N, Zhu Z, Mathai J, Kobayashi R, Venner A, Ross RA, VanderHorst V, Arrigoni E, Geerling JC, Zeidel ML. (2019) Non-Crh glutamatergic neurons in Barrington’s nucleus control micturition via glutamatergic afferents from the midbrain and hypothalamus. Curr Biol. 29(17): 2775-2789. PubMed PMID: 31422881. [pdf]

  • Albayram O, MacIver B, Mathai J, Verstegen A, Baxley S, Qiu C, Bell C, Caldarone B, Zhou XZ, Lu KP, Zeidel ML. (2019) Traumatic Brain Injury-related voiding dysfunction in mice is caused by damage to rostral pathways, altering inputs to the reflex pathways. Scientific Reports. 9(8646): 1-12. Pubmed PMID: 31201348. [pdf]

  • Verstegen AMJ, Vanderhorst V, Gray PA, Zeidel ML, Geerling JC. (2017) Barrington’s nucleus: Neuroanatomic landscape of the mouse “pontine micturition center”. J Comp Neurol. 525(10): 2287-2309. Pubmed PMID: 28340519. [pdf]

  • Fenselau H*, Campbell JN*, Verstegen AMJ*, Madara J, Xu J, Shah B, Resch JM, Yang Z, Mandelblat-Cerf Y, Livneh Y, Lowell BB. (2017) An excitatory ARC to PVH circuit that rapidly induces satiety and is regulated by a-MSH. Nat Neurosci. 20(1): p42-51. Pubmed PMID: 27869800. *equal contribution. [pdf]

  • Campbell JN, Macosko EZ, Fenselau H, Pers TH, Lyubetskaya A, Tenen D, Goldman M, Verstegen AMJ, Resch JM, McCarroll SA, Rosen ED, Lowell BB, Tsai LT. (2017) A molecular census of arcuate hypothalamus and median eminence cell types. Nat Neurosci. 20 (3): 484-496. Pubmed PMID: 5323293. [pdf]