Elke Stein, Ph.D.

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I am born and raised in Lower Saxony, Germany. I was born left-handed and in the first-grade required to relearn writing with the right hand, leading initially to a dysgraphia. I overcame dysgraphia through reading and practicing writing. After this I skipped three years of high school. Since middle school I developed a strong interest in a number of subjects -from history, arts to politics and but especially for science, particular for chemistry. I decided to enroll into a private College in Braunschweig, Germany, where I received a degree as a CTA and graduated with “staatlich geprueft (federal exam) after two years. I took an exam that was intended for individuals with exceptional abilities in the science. My first two positions were at the Gesellschaft fuer Biotechnologische Forschung (GBF) in the Department of Immunobiology and in the Department of Cytogenetics. Afterwards, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Bert Sakmann at the Max-Planck Institute (MPI) for biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen and after the lab relocated in Heidelberg at the MPI for medical Research. The stimulating environment created by the groups of Drs. Bert Sakmann, Erwin Neher and Otto Creutzfeld encouraged me to pursue graduate school. The flexibility in my work schedule enabled me to take classes and still work full-time. I audited courses each semester at the University Goettingen and at the University Heidelberg. Whereas most of the classes I took were leading to a medical degree, such as Human Physiology, Botany or introduction to clinical medicine, I also audited courses such as Anthropology and Physics. The most important advice I got from Bert Sakmann was: “It never hurts to ask a question.”

Subsequently, I was recruited to Vanderbilt University in Nashville (TN) by Dr. Lee Limbird the Chair and Professor to Pharmacology, the year prior I was accepted into the interdisciplinary graduate program. I joined the lab of Todd Verdoorn at that time Assistant Professor to Pharmacology, who just joined the Faculty of her Department. Within one year, next to setting up his laboratory, I learned whole cell recording and conducted several independent projects, among one that characterized the pharmacological properties of AMPA receptors. The outcome of this study was published as my first first-author publication the first day I started graduate school.
In the Fall of 1992, I enrolled into the interdisciplinary graduate program at Vanderbilt University. I received my Ph.D. in Pharmacology in Summer of 1996. An important factor that made me chose Pharmacology as my major was the introduction to mechanism of action of drugs, signal transduction as well as to clinical pharmacology, especially to the areas of cardiovascular and neuropharmacology. The most important advice I got during my Ph.D. was “that you can do almost anything if you just want it” and “be persistent to reach your goals”.
In Fall of 1997 I started my postdoctoral training with Marc Tessier-Lavigne at UCSF. Here my studies provided key insights into the molecular mechanism that developing axons use to contribute to the establishment of the neuronal circuit in vertebrates. My favorite and most frequent comment that I liked to hear from Marc Tessier-Lavigne was “go for it”, thus giving me totally independence in my research.
In 2003 I was recruited to Yale University as a Faculty member in the Department of MCDBiology with a joined appointment in the Department of Cell Biology in the Yale School of Medicine. My research activities continued to focus on axon guidance, but I also started to explore the contributions of guidance receptors, specifically DSCAM, Robo and members of the Unc5 family to dendrite and synapse development.
In addition to following what I think is a Dream Job- a Professor in an Undergraduate Department - I took some time to look into entrepreneurial research and other ventures, but it brought me back to my own research. Currently I am a Visiting Faculty Scholar at the Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society.
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Cross-listing: Chemistry Tree