Erik A. Runko, Ph.D.

Dr. Erik Runko joined the NINDS Extramural Research Program in 2009 as a Program Analyst in the Neural Environment Cluster. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received his Ph.D. at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where his graduate studies focused on function of novel genes in axon guidance mechanisms at the ventral midline of the developing vertebrate and nematode nerve cord. As a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University, he focused on signaling involved in axon development and maintenance of axon position in the Caenorhabditis elegans ventral nerve cord. Prior to joining NINDS, Erik was a post-doctoral fellow at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis of the University of Miami, where he studied oligodendrocyte apoptotic cell death following spinal cord injury.