The long-term goal of the research in Dr. Tharin's lab is the repair of damaged corticospinal circuitry. Attempts at therapeutic regeneration are limited both by the current understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the sequential generation and development of corticospinal motor neurons (CSMN) and by the current understanding of the events occurring within CSMN in the setting of spinal cord injury. A thorough understanding of the molecular controls over CSMN development might enable enhancement of corticospinal regeneration. MicroRNAs are small, non-coding RNAs that have recently been identified to regulate the expression of entire “suites” of genes during the development of species as diverse as plants, worms, and humans. The work in Dr. Tharin's lab seeks to identify microRNA controls over the CSMN development and over CSMN response to spinal cord injury.