Eleni Markakis received her A.B. in Philosophy and M.A. in Biology from Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA. She studied the development of chick forelimb motor pools in the laboratory of Margaret Hollyday Ph.D. Her interest in neural development led her to the laboratory of Larry W. Swanson Ph.D. at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, where she earned her Ph.D. using neuroanatomical techniques to study "The spatiotemporal patterns of secretomotor neuron generation in the parvicellular neuroendocrine system."
Dr. Markakis went on to perform two post-doctoral fellowships, the first in the lab of Fred H. Gage Ph.D. at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA where she used her neuroanatomical expertise and learned neural progenitor cell isolation and culture, and the second in the lab of Pasko Rakic M.D., Ph.D. at Yale School of Medicine, where she furthered her interest in the development of the human brain. She became an Associate Research Scientist in the department of Neurology at Yale (Jeffery Kocsis Ph.D.) where she was able to use neural progenitors to re-myelinate de-myelinated regions of the rat spinal cord.
Eleni was recruited to a tenure-track faculty position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. While a faculty member there, she collaborated with faculty across departments, institutions, and continents. Trans-institutional collaborations became a hallmark of her work, and coalition building, one of her strengths.
A Cleveland native, Dr. Markakis returned home when she joined Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine as the Assistant Director for Scientific Programs, Cleveland Brain Health Initiative. Her research interests are in neural stem cell biology and neurodegenerative diseases, and her administrative goal is to build stronger research programs by leveraging collaborative strengths.