Dr. Badea received a M.D. from Iuliu Hatieganu Medical University in Cluj, Romania, a M.A. in Biological Sciences from Columbia University in New York, under the mentorship of Rafael Yuste and Darcy Kelley, and a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins Medical School, under the mentorship of Jeremy Nathans. He then completed postdoctoral training in the lab of Jeremy Nathans, working on molecular genetic approaches for the study of neuronal cell type identification, development, and function. He joined the National Eye Institute as a Tenure Track Investigator in 2010, and is heading the Retinal Circuits Development and Genetics Unit of the Neurobiology-Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory. His major interest is in the development and functional significance of neuronal morphology, with a specific focus on Retinal Ganglion Cells.
Dr. Badea's lab is using molecular genetic tools, electrophysiology and behavior assays to understand Retinal Ganglion Cell (RGC) Type specification. Novel neuronal labeling strategies involving random sparse recombination, or sequential recombination involving Cre, Dre and Flp recombinases are being deployed in order to uniquely label specific neuronal cell types. Their anatomy and physiology is then studied using genetic reporter lines, and the molecular mechanisms of RGC type formation are studied using in vivo and in vitro approaches. The functions of identified RGC types are studied at the whole organism level using a battery of visual behavior tests.
