{"id":4859,"date":"2015-06-27T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T19:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/biochem\/directory\/maness\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T15:30:16","slug":"maness","status":"publish","type":"directory","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/biochem\/directory\/maness\/","title":{"rendered":"Patricia Maness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- title_affiliation --><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"blue\"><em><strong>Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><span class=\"discreet\">(PhD &#8211; University of Texas)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<h3><span class=\"blue\">HONORS &amp; AWARDS<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #3187b6\">Hilton Distinguished Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD)<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #3187b6\">Pogue Fellowship for Scholarly Research<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #3187b6\">Member NIH Neurodifferentiation, Plasticity, and Regeneration (NDPR) Study Section<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #3187b6\">NIH Research Career Development Award<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #3187b6\">Jefferson-Pilot Award in Academic Research<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"blue\">BIO<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Patricia F. Maness, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Biochemistry in 1975 from the University of Texas. She was an Anna Fuller Fund Postdoctoral Fellow from 1978-1980 at the Rockefeller University in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Dr. Gerald M. Edelman, and Assistant Professor. Since 1980 Dr. Maness has served on the faculty of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine-Chapel Hill, where she is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. She has been a member of the UNC Neuroscience Center, UNC Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, and UNC Curriculum in Neurobiology. Dr. Maness&#8217;s research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms governing development of the mammalian nervous system; specifically, mechanisms of axon guidance and synaptogenesis and their disruption in neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and intellectual disability. She has held continuous funding from NIH, NSF, NARSAD, and other agencies. Dr. Maness has been a standing member of NIH Study Sections Neurology C and NDPR (Neurodifferentiation, Plasticity and Regeneration), and served on the editorial boards of Journal of Biological Chemistry and Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. Dr. Maness has received national recognition for her research, including the Hilton Distinguished Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), a Pogue Fellowship for Scholarly Research, an NIH Career Development Award, and the Jefferson-Pilot Award in Academic Research. She has published 132 scientific papers, and trained 13 graduate students, 30 postdoctoral fellows, 32 undergraduate and medical students. She has dedicated 45 years to academia as a faculty member, distinguished by her exceptional contributions to research.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"blue\">RESEARCH<\/span><\/h3>\n<div class=\"alert alert-gray\" style=\"text-align: justify\">How neuronal circuitry in the brain is established during development and refined in the adult is a central unanswered question in neuroscience. Neural recognition molecules expressed on the neuronal surface are pivotal players in developing cortical circuits. Among the most relevant of these molecules to human disease are members of the NCAM and L1 family (L1, CHL1, NrCAM, Neurofascin). Each of these cell recognition molecules has established functions in axon guidance that mediate correct topographic synaptic targeting of axons, while exciting new findings reveal that they also have vital functions in regulating synaptogenesis and plasticity of cortical networks. Importantly, mutations in neural adhesion molecule genes may contribute to susceptibility to human neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, and intellectual disability. To study the normal and abnormal function of neural cell adhesion molecules in brain development and function, our laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach to generate and analyze novel mouse genetic models of neurodevelopmental disorders. Neural adhesion molecules of the immunoglobulin superfamily (Ig-CAMs) are risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and intellectual disability. Maness transformed our understanding of how IgCAMs function by discovering that they are not molecular \u201cglue\u201d but are signaling receptors that establish and refine neuronal connectivity in the mammalian brain. Using novel mouse models she demonstrated that IgCAMs mediate topographic axon targeting and synaptogenesis, and identified their signaling pathways through Src, RhoA and MAP kinases. She was first to determine that a normal proto-oncogene product, c-Src, functions to regulate neuronal axon guidance, rather than proliferation, distinguishing it from its oncogenic counterpart. This finding had widespread implications for our understanding that proto-oncogenes play normal roles in cell differentiation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3><span class=\"blue\">PUBLICATIONS<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/?term=maness+pf&amp;sort=date&amp;size=100\">Link to all PubMed publications<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"btn-warning normalSizeFont btn btn-large\" style=\"color: #ffffff\"><span class=\"blue\"><a class=\"external-link\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/sites\/entrez?cmd=PureSearch&amp;db=pubmed&amp;term=maness%20pf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Link to all pubs<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><!-- description --> <\/p>\n<p class='lead'>Research: Specification of Neuronal Connectivity by Cell Recognition Molecules<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-4859","directory","type-directory","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Patricia Maness | Biochemistry and Biophysics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/biochem\/directory\/maness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patricia Maness | Biochemistry and Biophysics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Research: Specification of Neuronal Connectivity by Cell 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