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
- Anfang, M, Ben Yaakov, S, Su, N, Shafir, A, Binenbaum, J, Haj Yahya, R et al.. mTACT: A cell type-specific transportome-scale amiRNA toolbox to overcome functional redundancy in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 2025; :. doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiaf682. PubMed PMID:41474533 .
- Liu, W, Wang, J, Zhang, H, Zhang, Y, Liu, H, Shu, H et al.. Toward Digital Assessment of Developmental Dyslexia in Mainland China: Establishing Nationwide Norms With a GAMLSS Approach. Assessment. 2025; :10731911251406404. doi: 10.1177/10731911251406404. PubMed PMID:41474507 .
- Liu, X, Zhang, Z, Wang, B, Qin, L, Fan, N, Wang, R et al.. Pan cohort immune biomarker of CD8 lymphocyte activation enabling HGSOC outcome prediction and treatment response. Discov Oncol. 2025; :. doi: 10.1007/s12672-025-04363-5. PubMed PMID:41474480 .
- Li, Y, Li, S, Guo, M, Zhang, Y, Nie, Y, Bo, Y et al.. Skin-Derived Precursors-Derived Exosomes Alleviated Acne Inflammation via TLR2/MyD88/NF-κB Signaling Pathway: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies. FASEB J. 2026;40 (1):e71383. doi: 10.1096/fj.202501944R. PubMed PMID:41474360 .
- Sun, X, Zhang, L, Chen, G, Yang, F, Ning, X, Qiu, J et al.. A cocktail vaccine with monkeypox virus antigens confers protection without selecting mutations in potential immune evasion genes in the vaccinia WR strain challenge. mBio. 2025; :e0320025. doi: 10.1128/mbio.03200-25. PubMed PMID:41474326 .