Dr. John Vessey

Although my scientific interests could be described as cellular, molecular, or developmental, at heart I am a neuroscientist curious about all of these aspects of the brain. My interest in neuroscience began during my undergraduate studies at Dalhousie University, where I became fascinated by the complexity of the neuron and how such a highly specialized cell achieves remarkable precision and functionality. I completed my doctoral training at the Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology in Tübingen and the Medical University of Vienna, before returning to Canada as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

I was hired by the University of Guelph in 2013 and have recently undertaken a shift of career focus. I have paused my research program and have morphed into what we call a "Teaching Focused Faculty" member in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. I regularly teach MCB*2050, coordinate BIOL*3660, and on occasion, teach BIOC*3560 in the summer semester. I am excited to be developing a new fourth-year course, MCB*4020, which will aim to develop skills in the communication of the molecular and cellular sciences. It is scheduled to launch in the W27 semester.

Although I no longer run a traditional research program, I am in the early stages of developing a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) program focused on student attention, engagement, and the design of effective learning environments in large undergraduate courses. My current work explores how assessment design, feedback, and instructional practices shape student learning and metacognition, with the goal of aligning teaching approaches with the realities of modern learners.

• B.Sc. – Neuroscience, Dalhousie University
• M.Sc. – Physiology and Biophysics, Dalhousie University
• Ph.D. - Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

• Amadei G, Zander MA, Yang G, Dumelie JG, Vessey JP, Lipshitz HD, Smibert CA, Kaplan DR, Miller FD. 2015. A Smaug2-Based Translational Repression Complex Determines the Balance between Precursor Maintenance versus Differentiation during Mammalian Neurogenesis. J Neurosci. 2015 Nov 25;35(47):15666-81.
• Gallagher D, Norman AA, Woodard CL, Yang G, Gauthier-Fisher A, Fujitani M, Vessey JP, Cancino GI, Sachewsky N, Woltjen K, Fatt MP, Morshead CM, Kaplan DR, Miller FD. 2013. Transient maternal IL-6 mediates long-lasting changes in neural stem cell pools by deregulating an endogenous self-renewal pathway. Cell Stem Cell. 2013 Nov 7;13 (5) 564-76.
• Tsui D, Vessey JP, Tomita H, Kaplan DR, Miller FD. 2012. FoxP2 regulates neurogenesis during embryonic cortical development. Journal of Neuroscience, 33 (1) 244-58.
• Vessey JP, Amadei G, Burns SE, Kiebler MA, Kaplan DR, Miller FD. 2012. An asymmetrically-localized Staufen2-dependent RNA complex regulates maintenance of mammalian neural stem cells. Cell Stem Cell, 11 (4) 517-28.
• Raj B, O'Hanlon D, Vessey JP, Pan Q, Ray D, Buckley NJ, Miller FD, Blencowe BJ. 2011. Cross-regulation between an alternative splicing activator and a transcription repressor controls neurogenesis. Molecular Cell, 43 (5) 843-50.
• Vessey JP, Schoderboeck L, Gingl E, Luzi E, Riefler J, Di Leva F, Karra D, Thomas S, Kiebler MA, Macchi P. 2010. Mammalian Pumilio 2 regulates dendrite morphogenesis and synaptic function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 107 (7) 3222-7.
• Vessey JP, Macchi P, Stein JM, Mikl M, Hawker KH, Volgelsang P, Wieczorek K, Vendra G, Riefler J, Tübing F, Aparicio SAJ, Abel T, Kiebler MA. 2008. A loss of function allele for murine Staufen 1 leads to impairment of dendritic Staufen1-RNP delivery and dendritic spine morphogenesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105 (42) 16374-9.
• Xie Y, Vessey JP, Konecna A, Dahm R, Macchi P, Kiebler MA. 2007. The dendritic spine-associated GTPase Septin 7 is a regulator of dendritic branching and dendritic spine morphology. Current Biology, 17 (20) 1746-51.
• Vessey JP, Vaccani A, Xie Y, Dahm R, Karra D, Kiebler MA, Macchi P. 2006. Dendritic localization of the translational repressor Pumilio 2 and its contribution to dendritic stress granules. Journal of Neuroscience, 26 (24), 6496-508.