Research
Astrocyte development and the roles of astrocytes in diseases
Appointments
- Assistant Professor
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
Biography
Astrocytes constitute at least a third of all cells in human brains. Long thought to be passive support cells, astrocytes are recently found to be critical for the development and function of the central nervous system. Accumulating evidence show that astrocytes are involved in almost every type of neurological and psychiatric disorder.
The cellular and molecular mechanisms that control astrocyte development as well as dysfunction of astrocytes in neurological and psychiatric disorders remains poorly understood.
We combine cell culture and mouse genetic approaches to study the following questions:
- What signals regulate astrocyte maturation?
- How is astrocyte differentiation regulated?
- Can we improve treatment of glioblastoma by studying astrocyte development?
- Are astrocytes involved in intellectual disability and autism?
Publications
- Jiang, X, Zhang, L, You, J, Ma, J, Zhang, Y, Hu, C et al.. The use of oXiris hemofilter in the initial continuous renal replacement therapy among patients with septic shock: A propensity score matched analysis. J Crit Care. 2026;95 :155666. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2026.155666. PubMed PMID:42341374 .
- Tan, Q, Zhao, Y, Zhang, Y, Chen, H, Xu, Z, Pan, Z et al.. Inhalable Polymeric PROTAC Nanococktail for Targeted Protein Degradation in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. J Am Chem Soc. 2026; :. doi: 10.1021/jacs.6c09336. PubMed PMID:42341263 .
- Xu, XJ, Ren, Q, Xu, ZY, Fang, L, Zhang, Y, Zhu, Q et al.. Potyviral genome-linked protein targets NbMYB330 to attenuate hydrogen-peroxide-induced antiviral immunity in plants. Plant Physiol. 2026; :. doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiag426. PubMed PMID:42341164 .
- Guo, Y, Mu, X, Zhang, Y, Liu, Z, Wang, S, Zhang, Q et al.. Asymmetric Ru─O sites in self-activated catalysts for efficient electrochemical methanol oxidation and industrial-scale hydrogen generation. Sci Adv. 2026;12 (26):eaeb1299. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb1299. PubMed PMID:42341130 .
- Guo, W, Feng, J, Yang, Y, Chen, J, Ma, T, Gao, M et al.. Preparation and Characterization of Icariin-Loaded Bioactive Glass/Sodium Alginate Thermosensitive Composite Gel. ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2026; :. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.6c00598. PubMed PMID:42341026 .