Mary Hynes

Mary Hynes is a neuroscientist and Research Associate Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York City. She is a leading expert on the development of dopaminergic neurons, critical nerve cells whose degeneration causes the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Research by Dr. Hynes and her colleagues has shown how these cells can be induced to grow from stem cells in the laboratory.  Her ongoing studies are aimed at development of new treatments for Parkinson’s disease, including neuron transplantation. Recently, she made the unexpected finding of differential expression of mRNA components in different cells, revealing an additional level of complexity in gene expression underlying neuron development and function.

Dr. Hynes received her undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of North Carolina. She held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia University in New York, and performed additional postdoctoral work at Genentech, Inc.  She then held positions at Genentech, Inc., and Renovis, Inc., before continuing her research as a Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University, and then at The Rockefeller University.