Larry Benowitz, formerly Professor of Neurosurgery and Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Neurosurgical Innovation and Research Professor at Boston Children’s Hospital, is now a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh. He and his colleagues are continuing research on regeneration of the injured optic nerve and on preservation of retinal ganglion cells.
- MIT, Harvard, Postdoctoral fellowships
- Caltech, PhD
Education & Training
Disruption of G3BP1 granules promotes mammalian CNS and PNS axon regeneration. Sahoo PK, Agrawal M, Hanovice N, Ward PJ, Desai M, Smith TP, SiMa H, Dulin JN, Vaughn LS, Tuszynski MH, Welshhans K, Benowitz LI, English AW, Houle JD, Twiss JL. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Mar 4;122(9):e2411811122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2411811122. Epub 2025 Feb 27.
In Vitro and In Vivo Methods for Studying Retinal Ganglion Cell Survival and Optic Nerve Regeneration. Yin Y, Benowitz LI. Methods Mol Biol. 2025;2858:291-312. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4140-8_22.
Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II Enhances Retinal Ganglion Cell Survival But Suppresses Axon Regeneration after Optic Nerve Injury. Xia X, Shi C, Tsien C, Sun CB, Xie L, Luo Z, Bian M, Russano K, Thakur HS, Benowitz LI, Goldberg JL, Kapiloff MS. eNeuro. 2024 Mar 28;11(3):ENEURO.0478-23.2024. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0478-23.2024. Print 2024 Mar.
Neutrophil-inflicted vasculature damage suppresses immune-mediated optic nerve regeneration. Passino R, Finneran MC, Hafner H, Feng Q, Huffman LD, Zhao XF, Johnson CN, Kawaguchi R, Oses-Prieto JA, Burlingame AL, Geschwind DH, Benowitz LI, Giger R J.Cell Rep. 2024 Mar 26;43(3):113931. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113931. Epub 2024 Mar 15.
Inflammatory Mediators of Axon Regeneration in the Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems. Benowitz LI, Xie L, Yin Y. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Oct 19;24(20):15359. doi: 10.3390/ijms242015359.
Dr. Benowitz has had a long-standing interest in the rewiring of CNS circuits after injury, with a particular focus on the regeneration of the optic nerve. Although the mature optic nerve normally cannot regenerate when injured, Dr. Benowitz discovered that intraocular inflammation enables retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) to regenerate lengthy axons beyond the injury site and identified the small Ca2+-binding protein oncomodulin (Ocm) and the chemokine SDF1 as the primary mediators of this phenomenon. Combining intraocular inflammation with a cAMP analog and pten gene deletion enables some RGCs to regenerate axons from the eye to appropriate target areas in the brain. Following up on this work, his group now identified the receptor through which Ocm promotes regeneration in the optic nerve, peripheral nerves, and spinal cord.
Other recent work has identified the chemokine CCL5 as the primary mediator of optic nerve regeneration induced by ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) gene therapy and identified the transcriptional repressor REST/NRSF as a major regulator of the transcriptional program underlying optic nerve regeneration. In other work, his group discovered that free/mobile zinc (Zn2+) increases in the inner retina shortly after optic nerve injury, and that chelating Zn2+ enables many injured RGCs to survive long-term and regenerate axons. His most recent research further examined the transcription cascade underlying the regenerative program, understanding how Zn2+ levels are regulated in the retina through elevation of nitric oxide in amacrine cells, and how this in turn regulates RGC survival and optic nerve regeneration, and clinically relevant approaches to CNS regeneration. In earlier work, Dr. Benowitz investigated the role of microglial activation and TNF-a in glaucoma; the role of inosine in promoting rewiring of the corticospinal tract and functional recovery after SCI and stroke; Mst3b as a key regulator of axon regeneration; the relationship of GAP-43 to brain development and plasticity; and cognitive functions mediated by the right cerebral hemisphere in man.
Dr. Benowitz has published over 120 papers in the primary literature, many reviews, and has trained dozens of students and postdoctoral fellows. He has been invited to deliver several named lectureships. He holds several patents related to promoting brain rewiring after injury.