Hazel L. Sive

Biography

Sive is a Member of the Whitehead Institute, Professor of Biology at MIT and Associate Member of the Broad Institute. Prof. Sive received the B.Sc. Hons. from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Ph.D. in 1986 from Rockefeller University, New York; and carried out postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, before joining the MIT faculty in 1991. Sive was the first Associate Dean for the MIT School of Science and is Founding Coordinator of the MIT-AFRICA Initiative. Most recently, she was named a 2015 MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT’s highest teaching award.

Research Interest

A major focus of Sive’s research has been on development of the nervous system. Using novel techniques, her laboratory defined some of the earliest molecular markers of the nervous system. These answered the age-old question of when the embryo decides to make a nervous system, and showed that future brain cells are set aside when the embryo is just a ball of cells.  A key area of interest is how three-dimensional structure of the brain is generated (the process of ‘morphogenesis’).  The Sive group discovered a novel cell shape change they called ‘basal constriction’ and a cell sheet stretching process they called ‘epithelial relaxation’ that contribute to brain morphogenesis. Sive has used the zebrafish to study morphogenesis and function of the brain ventricular system - cavities filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that form the ‘third circulation’. Using a unique drainage assay, the Sive group has identified Retinol Binding Protein in the CSF as essential for survival of brain cells. Sive views this as just a start, and proposes that many proteins in the CSF play roles in brain health and disease.