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
- Wang, Z, Ning, J, Zhang, H, Ruan, Q, Zhao, Y, Qu, R et al.. Machine learning-based identification of key genes underlying sex differences in hepatocellular carcinoma and targeted drug screening. Biomed Rep. 2026;24 (6):74. doi: 10.3892/br.2026.2147. PubMed PMID:42125766 PubMed Central PMC13158723.
- Zhang, Y, Ding, Y, Xu, Y, Zeng, Q, Rao, X. The Larger the Egg, the Safer the Nest: A Study on the Negative Correlation Between Nest Predation Rates and Egg Size of Two Tropical Phasianids in Hainan. Ecol Evol. 2026;16 :e73569. doi: 10.1002/ece3.73569. PubMed PMID:42125746 PubMed Central PMC13158515.
- Duong, KNC, Toth, DJA, Nguyen, DT, Zhang, Y, Nelson, RE, Pavia, AT et al.. Health, economic, and equity impact of a COVID-19 mobile vaccine clinic program in US: a cost-effectiveness analysis. Lancet Reg Health Am. 2026;59 :101488. doi: 10.1016/j.lana.2026.101488. PubMed PMID:42125731 PubMed Central PMC13158768.
- Wu, H, Zhao, L, Zhang, Y, Zhang, C, Zhao, G, Li, W et al.. Interpretability and performance of a 3D C-vit model for accurate grading of pediatric brain tumors. Front Oncol. 2026;16 :1763280. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2026.1763280. PubMed PMID:42125700 PubMed Central PMC13158093.
- Song, S, Chen, W, Li, X, Zhang, Y, Wang, Y. Anlotinib-temozolomide combination achieves durable response in multimodal-resistant primary breast angiosarcoma with skull base metastasis and dural involvement: a case report. Front Oncol. 2026;16 :1619754. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2026.1619754. PubMed PMID:42125685 PubMed Central PMC13158099.