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
- Li, Q, Zhang, Z, Wang, Y, Peng, X, Fang, Y, Zhang, Y et al.. ARID1A Mediates SWI/SNF-Independent Maintenance of Heterochromatin Architecture to Restrain Viral Mimicry and Immunogenicity in Colon Cancer. Cancer Res. 2026; :. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-25-3231. PubMed PMID:41661654 .
- Islam, N, Chu, AWL, Sheriff, F, Foroutan, F, Guyatt, GH, Brignardello-Petersen, R et al.. Risk Factors for the Development of Food Allergy in Infants and Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA Pediatr. 2026; :. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.6105. PubMed PMID:41661638 .
- Zhang, Y, Liu, Y, Li, Y, Li, Y, Gu, X, Kang, JH et al.. Coffee and Tea Intake, Dementia Risk, and Cognitive Function. JAMA. 2026; :. doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.27259. PubMed PMID:41661604 .
- Zhu, Y, Xie, C, Ye, Z, Jiang, T, Zhang, Y, Wang, K et al.. A thermally engineered NbOx memristor with CdTe2 interlayers for high-accuracy ECG arrhythmia detection. Mater Horiz. 2026; :. doi: 10.1039/d5mh01754h. PubMed PMID:41661548 .
- He, W, Zhang, Y, Zhang, P, Liu, Y, Wu, G, Xue, B et al.. A Fully Biomimetic Flexible Sensor Inspired by the Natural Layered Structure of Eggshells for Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction. Nanomicro Lett. 2026;18 (1):244. doi: 10.1007/s40820-026-02101-2. PubMed PMID:41661490 .