Michelle Gray

Michelle Gray is an American neuroscientist and professor of neurology and neurobiology at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Gray is a researcher in the study of the biological basis of Huntington's disease (HD). In her postdoctoral work, she developed a transgenic mouse line, BACHD, that is used worldwide in the study of HD. Gray's research continued to focus on the role of glial cells in HD. In 2020 Gray was named one of the 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America by Cell Press. She is also a member of the Hereditary Disease Foundation’s scientific board.

Early life and education Gray was born in West Central Alabama, and was raised in a rural community. Her rural upbringing instilled in her a love of animal life and inspired her to pursue her undergraduate degree in the biological sciences. In 1993, Gray began college at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama. Gray trained under the mentorship of Christine Beattie in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, studying nervous system development in zebrafish. She explored the supernumary development of Mauthner neurons due to mutations in the deadly seven/notch1a gene. She found that the extra neurons that form as a result of the mutation are incorporated into the neural circuit critical for escape behavior in zebrafish. She applied fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) to genetically labelled neurons and then characterized their gene expression profiles. She achieved expression of the mutant huntingtin protein in mice using insertion of a bacterial artificial chromosome expressing the full-length human mutant huntingtin gene.

Gray is the Principal Investigator of a lab focused on exploring the role of astrocytes in HD. HD research had predominantly focused on medium spiny neurons, yet the majority of brain cells are glia and they have been increasingly recognized as contributors to neurodegeneration and disease processes in the brain.

In September 2025, Gray was promoted to professor.

Research In 2013, shortly after Gray began her lab at UAB, she discovered that astrocytes in BACHD models of HD in mice exhibit aberrant glutamate release. Since glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity is known to injure neurons, this finding pointed to astrocytes playing a potential role in HD pathogenesis. They used a conditional knock out mutation to selectively prevent expression of mutant huntingtin in astrocytes. They first looked to gliotransmission and inhibited the SNARE complex in astrocytes to prevent exocytosis of gliotransmitters from astrocytes. 2010 NINDS K01 Career Development Award 2008 Dixon Scholar in Neuroscience 2002-2002 NINDS F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award

Selected publications

Zhu Y, Shamblin I, Rodriguez E, et al. Progressive cardiac arrhythmias and ECG abnormalities in the Huntington's disease BACHD mouse model. Hum Mol Genet. 2020;29(3):369‐381. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddz295 Gray M. Astrocytes in Huntington's Disease. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1175:355‐381. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-9913-8_14 William Yang X, Gray M. Mouse Models for Validating Preclinical Candidates for Huntington's Disease. In: Lo DC, Hughes RE, eds. Neurobiology of Huntington's Disease: Applications to Drug Discovery. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press/Taylor & Francis; 2011. Gray M, Shirasaki DI, Cepeda C, et al. Full-length human mutant huntingtin with a stable polyglutamine repeat can elicit progressive and selective neuropathogenesis in BACHD mice. J Neurosci. 2008;28(24):6182‐6195. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0857-08.2008

Wang, Nan & Gray, Michelle & Lu, Xiao-Hong & Cantle, Jeffrey & Holley, Sandra & Greiner, Erin & Gu, Xiaofeng & Shirasaki, Dyna & Cepeda, Carlos & Li, Yuqing & Dong, Hongwei & Levine, Michael & Yang, X. (2014). Neuronal targets for reducing mutant huntingtin expression to ameliorate disease in a mouse model of Huntington's disease. Nature medicine. 20. 10.1038/nm.3514. Graham, Rona & Deng, Yu & Carroll, Jeffery & Vaid, Kuljeet & Cowan, Catherine & Pouladi, Mahmoud & Metzler, Martina & Bissada, Nagat & Wang, Lili & Faull, Richard & Gray, Michelle & Yang, Xiaoming & Raymond, Lynn & Hayden, Michael. (2010). Cleavage at the 586 Amino Acid Caspase-6 Site in Mutant huntingtin Influences Caspase-6 Activation In Vivo. The Journal of Neuroscience. 30. 15019-29. 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2071-10.2010.