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
- Yu, H, Zhang, R, Wang, Q, Zhang, H, Lei, Z, Li, R et al.. Tanshinone IIA Inhibits Microglial Activation and Inflammation and Relieves Cerebral Ischemia‒Reperfusion Injury Through TGM2/PANX1. Biochem Genet. 2025; :. doi: 10.1007/s10528-025-11308-8. PubMed PMID:41351813 .
- Fang, XY, Lin, S, Zhong, XP, Zhang, XL, Zhang, YT, Chen, JM et al.. Morphological and Molecular Analyses of Cladonema cf. Californicum (Hydrozoa: Anthoathecata) from China. Zoolog Sci. 2025;42 (6):596-604. doi: 10.2108/zs240009. PubMed PMID:41351680 .
- Xie, J, Huang, P, Xia, G, Zhang, Y, Zhang, Y, Tian, K et al.. Thermal runaway mechanism of LiFePO4 battery electrolytes: a molecular dynamics and density functional theory simulation study. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2025; :. doi: 10.1039/d5cp01815c. PubMed PMID:41351585 .
- Xu, S, Dai, B, Zhang, Z, Sun, S, Lou, WK, Ren, Y et al.. Chirality-Selected Noncollinear Antiferromagnetic State. Adv Mater. 2025; :e16514. doi: 10.1002/adma.202516514. PubMed PMID:41351508 .
- Qi, Q, Zhang, C, Guo, T, Zeng, J, Sun, M, Zhang, Y et al.. Spatiotemporal Control of MOF Reconstruction Unlocks Efficient Oxygen Evolution. Adv Mater. 2025; :e15800. doi: 10.1002/adma.202515800. PubMed PMID:41351499 .