Peter R. MacLeish, PhD
Director, Neuroscience Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine
Dr. MacLeish graduated from the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, chaired by the renowned neuroscientist, Professor Stephen Kuffler. He completed his doctoral training with Professors Edwin J. Furshpan and David D. Potter studying synapse formation in tissue culture in 1977. He did his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Torsten N. Wiesel where he and two colleagues, Drs. Charles Bader and Eric Schwartz, developed the procedures to isolate functioning vertebrate photoreceptors for physiological studies of phototransduction.
Dr. MacLeish and two other assistant professors were invited by Torsten N. Wiesel to establish the Laboratory of Neurobiology at The Rockefeller University. At The Rockefeller University Dr. MacLeish continued his pioneering work on synapse formation among mature retinal neurons in tissue culture and was promoted to the rank of associate professor. He was recruited to the Ophthalmology Department at Cornell University Medical College/New York Hospital as Professor of Ophthalmology in Physiology, with tenure, and founding director of research of the Margaret M. Dyson Vision Research Institute. He received the Jules and Doris Stein Research to Prevent Blindness Professorship at Cornell. He joined Morehouse School of Medicine in 1995 as Professor of Anatomy and founding director of the Morehouse School of Medicine Neuroscience Institute. In 2000, he accepted the position of Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology.
Dr. MacLeish maintains an active research program at the Morehouse School of Medicine on how electrical signals are processed in rod and cone photoreceptors and on the molecular determination of cone photoreceptors. His work has been recognized by invitations to international meetings including the Taniguchi International Symposium in Japan and the Dahlem Conference in Germany. He has published in the top journals in his field including the Journal of Physiology, the Journal of Neuroscience, Science, Neuron, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Comparative Neurology. He has lectured extensively within the U.S.A. and in England, France, Germany, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, and South Africa.
Dr. MacLeish's thirty-year record of accomplishment has earned him national and international recognition. He was a member of the Council of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, of the Visiting Committee for the Division of Medical Science at Harvard Medical School and, of the Society for Neuroscience Council. He also served on the John Merck Fund Fellowship Selection Committee and is a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives - a national organization to promote research and public information on the brain and its disorders. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2004.
Dr. MacLeish's commitment to the training spans several decades. He was instrumental in achieving full committee status for the Minority Education, the Training and Professional Advancement, and the International Affairs committees of the Society of Neuroscience. He has mentored and guided students through doctoral theses at The Rockefeller University and Cornell University Medical College. He tutored in the Harvard University Health Careers Summer Program that supported college students from across the country. He has taught neuroscience at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and for the International Brain Research Organization in Mexico and South Africa. Dr. MacLeish's commitment continues at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) through the activities of the Neuroscience Institute’s Undergraduate Summer Program Research and MSM’s doctoral program.
