Zhang, Ye, Ph.D.

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

1. Wang, S, Zhu, Z, Sun, X, Chen, J, Yang, J, Zhang, H et al.. Dual-Mode Molecular Regulation of Perovskite Crystallization Enables Efficient and Stable FAPbI₃ Solar Cells and Modules. Adv Mater. 2025; :e17246. doi: 10.1002/adma.202517246. PubMed PMID:41321277 .
2. Li, F, Zhang, Y, Xia, F, Xu, X. Development of Shell-Space Electrostatic Potential Fitting Charges in a United-Atom Model for Amino Acids Simulations. J Chem Theory Comput. 2025; :. doi: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5c01580. PubMed PMID:41321273 .
3. Cui, X, Song, G, Hu, D, Li, G, Zhang, Y, Ma, Y et al.. Transition from depression-free to death in late life: characteristics of bidirectional transitions in depression symptoms. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2025;34 :e56. doi: 10.1017/S2045796025100310. PubMed PMID:41321236 .
4. Wu, Y, Zhang, Y, Xiang, H, Zhou, C, Ye, Z, Yang, S et al.. Association of regular paracetamol or ibuprofen usage with the risk of incident kidney stones. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2025; :. doi: 10.1002/bcp.70342. PubMed PMID:41321218 .
5. Chen, Y, Tang, Y, Pang, E, Lei, T, Zhao, S, Lin, C et al.. Long-Lasting Near-Infrared Chemiluminescent Carbon Dots for Deep Tumor Imaging. Anal Chem. 2025; :. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c05761. PubMed PMID:41321022 .

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