Matthew B Veldman, PhD

Matthew B. Veldman, Ph.D., is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology, and Anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan under the guidance of Prof. Daniel Goldman, where he studied optic nerve regeneration in the zebrafish model. His thesis project highlighted the importance of the klf6 and klf7 transcription factors in axon regeneration. During his postdoctoral work in Prof. Shuo Lin’s lab at UCLA, Dr. Veldman studied the regulation of angiogenesis in zebrafish embryos and mammalian stem cells by the etv2 transcription factor, discovering the ability of this factor to transdifferentiate muscle cells into endothelial cells and to increase the yield of endothelial cells derived from embryonic stem cells. In collaboration with Prof. X. William Yang’s lab, he developed a zebrafish model of Huntington’s disease and rekindled his interest in neuroscience. Joining Prof. Yang’s group and supported by the NIH BRAIN Initiative, Dr. Veldman developed an optimized method for brain-wide sparse cell labeling, called MORF, and morphological reconstruction of neurons and glia. Currently, the Veldman Lab is focused on studying neurodegeneration and regeneration in the visual system and developing new genetic tools for manipulating and visualizing single cells in the eye and brain.