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
- Bai, H, Jiang, Y, Zhu, B, Huang, J, Zhang, Y, Liu, X et al.. Effect of PET-MPs exposure on the toxicology of PCOS: a multi-platform computational toxicology investigation. Mol Divers. 2026; :. doi: 10.1007/s11030-026-11518-1. PubMed PMID:41865346 .
- Song, M, Li, S, Wang, Z, Dong, G, Wang, T, Sun, J et al.. High-density cultivation of synthetic apomictic hybrid rice achieves near-complete diploidization and parental-equivalent yield in field trials. Mol Plant. 2026; :. doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2026.03.012. PubMed PMID:41865242 .
- Zhang, Y, Wang, J, Song, K, Yao, Z. Bidirectional association between non-steatotic chronic liver disease and heart disease: the potential link of insulin resistance. Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2026; :. doi: 10.1186/s12933-026-03134-y. PubMed PMID:41865235 .
- Zhang, X, Li, A, Zhang, Y, Wu, WK, Yan, ZZ, Chen, T et al.. Topiramate protects against neuroinflammation in response to traumatic brain injury via activating Sirt1 signaling. Sci Rep. 2026; :. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-45079-y. PubMed PMID:41865169 .
- Zhao, G, Sun, Y, Lu, Z, Kang, Z, Yu, T, Zhang, Y et al.. Identifying genetic contributions of 6q21 loci and PPAR pathway to antipsychotic-induced metabolic syndrome: a Sex-Stratified Multi-Omics study. Mol Psychiatry. 2026; :. doi: 10.1038/s41380-026-03544-0. PubMed PMID:41865124 .