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
- Tang, W, Zhang, Y, Lu, S, Xue, C. Association between ATG16L1 rs2241880(T300A) and rs4663421 and ANCA‑associated vasculitis in the Guangxi population of China: Propensity score matching analysis. Biomed Rep. 2025;22 (1):3. doi: 10.3892/br.2024.1880. PubMed PMID:39483332 PubMed Central PMC11522951.
- Li, C, Zhang, Y, Noppert, G, Al Hazzouri, AZ, Gross, A, Kobayashi, L et al.. Education, urbanicity of residence, and cardiometabolic biomarkers among middle-aged and older populations in the US, Mexico, China, and India. SSM Popul Health. 2024;28 :101716. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2024.101716. PubMed PMID:39484632 PubMed Central PMC11525230.
- Aad, G, Abbott, B, Abeling, K, Abicht, NJ, Abidi, SH, Aboulhorma, A et al.. Search for the Exclusive W Boson Hadronic Decays W^{±}→π^{±}γ, W^{±}→K^{±}γ and W^{±}→ρ^{±}γ with the ATLAS Detector. Phys Rev Lett. 2024;133 (16):161804. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.161804. PubMed PMID:39485985 .
- Hayrapetyan, A, Tumasyan, A, Adam, W, Andrejkovic, JW, Bergauer, T, Chatterjee, S et al.. Search for the Z Boson Decay to ττμμ in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV. Phys Rev Lett. 2024;133 (16):161805. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.161805. PubMed PMID:39485967 .
- Aad, G, Aakvaag, E, Abbott, B, Abdelhameed, S, Abeling, K, Abicht, NJ et al.. Search for Light Long-Lived Particles in pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV Using Displaced Vertices in the ATLAS Inner Detector. Phys Rev Lett. 2024;133 (16):161803. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.161803. PubMed PMID:39485965 .