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
- Zhang, Y, Zhang, N, Li, G. Effectiveness of modified ultrasound-guided ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerve blocks for postoperative pain control in transinguinal inguinal hernia repair. Adv Clin Exp Med. 2026; :. doi: 10.17219/acem/205614. PubMed PMID:41698175 .
- Li, D, Sun, X, Sun, S, Wang, R, Zhang, M, Xiao, M et al.. Prompt Engineering Accelerates the Data-Driven Discovery of Photocatalysts via an LLM-Based Model Ensemble Strategy. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2026; :e24215. doi: 10.1002/advs.202524215. PubMed PMID:41698154 .
- Qi, X, Guo, Y, Yang, Y, Wang, H, Yang, X, Song, R et al.. PDZK1-ULK1 Axis Triggers Lipophagy to Inhibit Tumor Progression and Sunitinib Resistance in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2026; :e11606. doi: 10.1002/advs.202511606. PubMed PMID:41698049 .
- Huo, Y, Song, J, Li, W, Zhang, J, Zhang, Y, Fu, Y et al.. Emerging Advanced Electronic Packaging Materials for Thermal Management in Power Electronics. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2026; :e24348. doi: 10.1002/advs.202524348. PubMed PMID:41698048 .
- Sun, X, Yan, H, Wang, A, Zhang, Y, Jiang, L, Ding, X et al.. Programmable Multiplexed Proteomics via Sequence-Encoded Mass Tagging. Anal Chem. 2026; :. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c07550. PubMed PMID:41698043 .