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
- Hu, K, Gao, Y, Zhang, Y, Zhang, Y, Li, R, Zhou, S et al.. Wet-Dry-Wet Experiments Enable Simultaneous Aptamer Isolation and Critical Binding Domain Identification. Anal Chem. 2026; :. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c04084. PubMed PMID:41649823 .
- Ramsay, JM, Kaddas, HK, VanDerslice, JA, Ou, JY, Taddie, M, Hanson, HA et al.. Associations between ambient air pollution and cardiovascular and respiratory healthcare visits in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2026; :. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-25-1075. PubMed PMID:41649793 .
- Mehmud, I, Zhang, Y, Wu, S, Zhang, S. Oncological Safety of Bladder Preservation in Elderly Patients with Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer. Ann Surg Oncol. 2026; :. doi: 10.1245/s10434-025-19064-0. PubMed PMID:41649780 .
- Wang, Y, Lan, T, Gu, S, Zhang, Y, Liu, P. Immune heterogeneity at diagnosis influences treatment response and survival in multiple myeloma. Discov Oncol. 2026; :. doi: 10.1007/s12672-026-04603-2. PubMed PMID:41649637 .
- Zhang, Y, Liu, H, Lu, H, Wang, R, Zhang, X, Guo, T et al.. New perspectives on lycopene: alleviation of sulfamethoxazole-induced inflammation, ER stress, and autophagy in the gills of grass carp. Fish Physiol Biochem. 2026;52 (1):30. doi: 10.1007/s10695-025-01631-7. PubMed PMID:41649629 .