NeuroRenew, Inc. was created in 2003 to serve as the business entity for consulting and extramural teaching by Daniel A. Peterson, Ph.D. Since 1996, Dan has taught microscopy and stereology courses at various international venues. Beginning in 2003, annual courses have been offered in Chicago.

Daniel A. Peterson, Ph.D.

Prof. Peterson serves as the President and Chief Scientific Officer of NeuroRenew, Inc. He serves as the course convenor and primary lecturer for both the Practical Workshop and for the Short Courses on Confocal Microscopy and Stereology.

Dan received a Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology from the University of Southern California in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Anatomy from the University of Otago (New Zealand) in 1991. He subsequently trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Rusty Gage in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. In 1994, Dan was appointed a Research Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego until 1995, when he moved to the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California as a Staff Scientist.

In 1998, Dan joined the Department of Neuroscience in the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. He is currently Professor and Vice-Chairman of Neuroscience.  In 2007, Dan become the founding Director of the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.  He has also been an occasional guest lecturer in the Graduate Program of the University of Lund, Sweden, since 1996.  Following a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to support a sabbatical year at the University of Bonn, Germany, Dan was named an International Ambassador for the University of Bonn and has taught in their Graduate Program.

In addition to directing the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Dan also directs the Laboratory for Neural Repair and Neurogenesis. He has over 70 scientific publications (h-index 44, i10-index 62, currently >19,000 citations) and has presented over 35 invited lectures at international symposia and universities since 1995. His research interests include understanding the regulation of neurogenesis in the aging brain and the use of neural stem cells and gene therapy in brain repair and cutaneous wound repair. He is Past-President of the Chicago Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience and Past-President of the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair. Dan serves on seven Editorial Boards including Neurobiology of Aging, Frontiers of Neuroscience, and Stem Cells and Development among others and previously served as Chairman of the NIH study section NCF- Neurogenesis and Cell Fate. In 2019, he was elected to the Board of Governors for the International Society for Stereology and Image Analysis.

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Relevant Publications ……………. 

Gage, F. H., Coates, P.W., Palmer, T.D., Kuhn, H.G., Fisher, L.J., Suhonen, J.O., Peterson, D.A., Suhr, S.T., and Ray, J. (1995) Survival and differentiation of adult neuronal progenitor cells transplanted to the adult brain. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 92:11879-11883.

Suhonen, J.O., Peterson, D.A., Ray, J. and Gage, F.H. (1996) Differentiation of adult-derived hippocampal progenitor cells into olfactory bulb neurons. Nature 383:624-627.

Peterson, D.A., Leppert, J.T., Lee, K-F., and Gage, F.H. (1997) Basal forebrain neuronal loss in mice lacking neurotrophin receptor p75. Science 277(5327):837-838.

Eriksson, P.S., Perfilieva, E., Björk-Eriksson, T., Alborn, A-M., Nordborg, C., Peterson, D.A., and Gage, F.H. (1998) Neurogenesis in the adult human hippocampus. Nature Medicine 4(11):1313-1317.

Peterson, D.A., Dickinson-Anson, H.A., Leppert, J.T., Lee, K-F., and Gage, F.H. (1999) Central neuronal loss and behavioral impairment in mice lacking neurotrophin receptor p75. Journal of Comparative Neurology 404(1):1-20.

Peterson, D.A. (1999) Quantitative histology using confocal microscopy: Implementation of unbiased stereology procedures. Methods: A Companion to Methods in Enzymology 18:493-507.

Peterson, D.A. (2002) Stem Cells in Brain Plasticity and Repair. Current Opinion in Pharmacology 2:34-42

Kaspar, B., Schaeffer, D.S., Erickson, D.A., Hinh, L., Gage, F.H., and Peterson, D.A. (2002) Rescue of specific projection neurons by retrograde anti-apoptotic gene delivery. Molecular Therapy 5:50-56

Hallbergson, A.F., Gnatenco, C. and Peterson, D.A. (2003) Neurogenesis following brain injury: Managing a renewable resource for brain repair Journal of Clinical Investigation 112:1128-1133.

Peterson, D.A. (2004) The use of fluorescent probes in cell counting procedures. In Quantitative Methods in Neuroscience, Evans, S., Jansen, A.M., and Nyengaard, J.R. (Eds.) Oxford University Press pp. 85-114.

Bernal, G.M. and Peterson, D.A. (2004) Neural stem cells as therapeutic agents for age-related brain repair. Aging Cell 3:345-351.

Vega, C.J., and Peterson, D.A. (2005) Stem cell proliferative history in tissue revealed by temporal halogenated thymidine analog discrimination. Nature Methods 2:167-169.

Sondi, D.*, Peterson, D.A.*, Sanders, C.T., Rostkowski, A., Giannaris E.L., De, B., Grant, A., Lam, M., Hackett, N.R., Kaminsky, S.M., and Crystal, R.G. (*equal contribution) (2005) AAV2-Mediated CLN2 gene transfer to brains of rodents and non-human primates results in widespread TPP-I expression at distribution levels compatible with therapy for late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. Gene Therapy 12:1618-1632

Peterson D.A. (2005) Images: keep a distinction between beauty and truth. Nature 435:8

Chadashvili, T. and Peterson, D.A. (2006) Cytoarchitecture of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR-2) immunoreactivity in astrocytes of neurogenic and non-neurogenic regions of the young adult and aged rat brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology 498:1-15

Sondi, D., Hackett, N.R., Travis, K., Peterson, D.A., and Crystal, R.G. (2007) Impact of intracranial administration of CLN2 gene mediated by Rhesus Macaque derived AAVrh.10 vector on performance in CLN2 knockout mice. Molecular Therapy 15:481-91.

Thomas, R.M., Hotsenpiller, G., and Peterson, D.A. (2007) Acute psychosocial stress reduces cell survival in adult hippocampal neurogenesis but not initial proliferation. Journal of Neuroscience 27:2734-43.

Bernal, G.M. and Peterson D.A. (2007) Neuronogenesis and Stem Cells in the Normal Aging Brain. in Squire, L.R. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 4th Edition, Elsevier Press.

Encinas, J.M., Michurina, T., Tordo, J., Peterson, D.A., Fishell, G., Koulakov, A., and Enikolopov, G. (2011) Division-coupled astrocytic differentiation of neural stem cells drives age-related decline in neurogenesis. Cell Stem Cell 8:566-579.

Bernal, G.M. and Peterson, D.A. (2011) Phenotypic and gene expression modification with normal brain aging in GFAP-positive astrocytes and neural stem cells. Aging Cell 10:466-482.

Shin, L. and Peterson, D.A. (2012) Impaired therapeutic capacity of autologous stem cells in a model of type 2 diabetes. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 1:125-135.

Klempin, F, Marr, R. and Peterson, D.A. (2012) Modification of Pax6 and Olig2 gene expression in adult hippocampal neurogenesis selectively induces stem cell fate and alters both neuronal and glial populations. Stem Cells 30(3):500-9.

Shin, L. and Peterson, D.A. (2013) Human mesenchymal stem cell grafts enhance normal and impaired wound healing by recruiting existing endogenous tissue stem/progenitor cells. Stem Cell Translational Medicine 2:33-42.

Schmitz, C., Eastwood, B.S. Tappan, S.J., Glaser, J.R., Peterson, D.A., and Hof, P.R. (2014) Current automated 3D cell detection methods are not a suitable replacement for manual stereologic cell counting. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 8: Article 27.

Olivera-Pasilio, V., Peterson, D.A., and Castelló, M.E. (2014) Spatial distribution and cellular composition of adult brain proliferative zones in the teleost, Gymnotus omarorum. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 8: Article 88.

Gorris R., Fischer J., Erwes K.L., Kesavan J., Peterson D.A., Alexander M., Nöthen M., Peitz M., Quandel T., Karus M., and Brüstle O. (2015) Pluripotent stem cell-derived radial glia-like cells as stable intermediate for efficient generation of human oligodendrocytes. Glia 63(12):2152-67.

Jamnia, N. Urban, J.H., Stutzmann, G.E, Chiren, S.G., Reisenbigler, E. Peterson, D.A., Marr, & Kozlowski, D.A. (2016) A clinically relevant closed-head model of single and repeat concussive injury in the adult rat using a controlled cortical impact device J.Neurotrauma 34(7):1351-1363. 

Doerr, J.*, Schwarz, M.K.*, Wiedermann, D., Leinhaas, A., Jakobs, A., Schloen, F., Schwarz, I., Diedenhofen, M., Braun, N.C., Koch, P., Peterson, D.A., Kubitscheck, U., Hoehn, M., and Brüstle, O. (2017) Whole-brain 3D mapping of human neural transplant innervation. Nature Communications 8:14162 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14162.

McDaid, J., Briggs, C.A., Barrington, N.M., Peterson, D.A., Kozlowski, D.A., Stutzmann, G.E. (2021) Sustained Hippocampal Synaptic Pathophysiology Following Single and Repeated Closed-Head Concussive Impacts. Front Cell Neurosci. 2021 Mar 31;15:652721. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2021.652721. eCollection 2021.

Mustaly-Kalimi, S., Marr, R.A., Gilman-Sachs, A., Peterson, D.A., Sekler, I., Stutzmann, G.E. (2022) Protein mishandling and impaired lysosomal proteolysis generated through calcium dysregulation in Alzheimer’s disease. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 119(49):e2211999119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2211999119. Epub 2022 Nov 28.

Bazarek SF, Thaqi M, King P, Mehta AR, Patel R, Briggs CA, Reisenbigler E, Yousey JE, Miller EA, Stutzmann GE, Marr RA, Peterson DA. Engineered neurogenesis in naïve adult rat cortex by Ngn2-mediated neuronal reprogramming of resident oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Front Neurosci. 2023 Aug 17;17:1237176. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1237176. PMID: 37662111; PMCID: PMC10471311.