Ghashghaei, Troy, Ph.D. (PI)
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology
Ph.D.: Boston University
Postdoctoral: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
PI's Office Phone: (919) 513-6174
Fax: (919) 513-6465
Troy_Ghashghaei@ncsu.edu
Research Area: Neurobiology and Developmental Biology
Lab Personnel
Postdoctoral Fellows |
|
Nagendran Muthusamy |
Mohamed Hammad |
Graduate Students |
|
Huixuan Liang |
Guanxi Xiao |
| Contact Information: 1060 William Moore Dr., CVM Research building, RB230 and RB236, Raleigh, NC 27607 | ||
| Staff Office Phone: (919) 513-0955 | Lab1 Phone: (919) 513-6840 | Lab2 Phone: (919) 513-6841 |
Current Research
The brain is a delicate structure. If damaged or diseased, the outcome can be devastating and irreversible. This susceptibility stems from the inability of the adult brain to repair itself, and currently there are no pharmaceutical or other therapeutic approaches to reverse damage or degeneration in the brain. Research in our laboratory is directed toward:
1. Understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the development and functioning of adult neural stem cells in the mouse brain;
2. Development of methods to understand and alter the fate of adult stem cells toward distinct neuronal and glial lineages.
3. Utilization of cell-based techniques in development of novel therapies in mouse and large-animal (veterinary) models of neurological diseases.
Equipment and Skills
We are currently making use of state-of-the-art mouse genetic approaches, viral mediated gene transfer, and neurobiological assays to assess the role of distinct factors in the development and function of adult neural stem cells. Moreover, we are developing methods to control the excitability of adult-born neurons in distinct regions of the mouse brain to understand their physiological significance. Transplantation of stem cells in combination with novel genetic approaches are employed to develop novel therapies in mouse models of various neurological diseases related to both human and veterinary medicine. Students and postdoctoral fellows are continuously trained and become experts in the following techniques to address hypothesis-driven questions in the Ghashghaei lab:
- Neuroanatomy (pathway tracing, neuro-histology/pathology)
- Mouse neurosurgery (factor/lentiviral delivery in vivo)
- Molecular biology (cloning, northern-, southern-, and western-blotting, in situ hybridization, and immunofluorescence staining)
- Cell biological techniques (in vitro cell culture, slice cultures, transfection, progeny mapping, FACS)
- Developmental biology (embryonic brain anatomy and mapping, transplantation, fate mapping)
- Gene therapy techniques (viral- and electroporation-mediated gene transfer)
- Confocal microscopy (fixed and live time-lapse imaging of cell- and slice- cultures and relevant quantitative analyses)
- Mouse genetics (generation and characterization of knock-in and transgenic mice)
- Bioinformatics, Proteomics, and GeneChip Microarrays
Highly motivated postdoctoral fellows and graduate students interested in working in our lab should contact Dr. Ghashghaei (Troy_Ghashghaei@ncsu.edu)
Representative Publications
Liang H., Xiao G., Yin H., Hippenmeyer S., Horowitz J.M., Ghashghaei H.T. (2013) Neural development is dependent on the function of specificity protein 2 in cell cycle progression. Development. 140(3):552-61.
Liang H., Hippenmeyer S., Ghashghaei H.T. (2012) A Nestin-cre transgenic mouse isinsufficient for recombination in early embryonic neural progenitors. Biol Open. 1(12):1200-3. "Cover Illustration"
Nehrenberg D.L., Sheikh A., Ghashghaei H.T. (2012) Identification of neuronal loci involved with displays of affective aggression in NC900 mice. Brain Struct. Funct. DOI: 10.1007/s00429-012-0445-y.
Jacquet B.V., Muthusamy N., Sommerville L.J., Xiao G., Liang H., Zhang Y., Holtzman M.J., Ghashghaei H.T. (2011) Specification of a Foxj1-dependent lineage in the forebrain is required for embryonic-to-postnatal transition of neurogenesis in the olfactory bulb. Journal of Neuroscience. 31(25):9368-82.
Jacquet B.V., Ruckart P., Ghashghaei H.T. (2010) An organotypic slice assay for high-resolution time-lapse imaging of neuronal migration in the postnatal brain. J Vis Exp. (46). pii: 2486. doi: 10.3791/2486.
Jacquet B.V.,Salinas-Mondragon R., Liang H., Therit B., Buie J.D., Dykstra M., Campbell K., Ostrowski L.E., Brody S.L.,and Ghashghaei H.T. (2009) FoxJ1-dependent gene expression is required for differentiation of radial glia into ependymal cells and a subset of astrocytes in the postnatal brain. Development. 136, 4021-4031. "Featured article with Cover Illustration".
Jacquet B.V., Patel M., Iyengar M., Liang H., Therit B., Salinas-Mondragon R., Lai C., Olsen J.C., Anton E.S., Ghashghaei H.T. (2009) Analysis of neuronal proliferation, migration and differentiation in the postnatal brain using equine infectious anemia virus-based lentiviral vectors. Gene Therapy. 16(8):1021-33.
Ghashghaei H.T., Weimer J.M., Schmid R.S., Yokota Y., McCarthy K.D., Popko B., Anton E.S. (2007) Reinduction of ErbB2 in astrocytes promotes radial glial progenitor identity in adult cerebral cortex. Genes Dev. 21(24): 3258-71.
Yokota, Y., Ghashghaei, H.T., Han, C., Watson, H., Campbell, K.J., Anton, E.S., (2007) Radial glial dependent and independent dynamics of interneuronal migration in the developing cerebral cortex. PLoS ONE. 2(8): e794.
Ghashghaei H.T., Lai C., and Anton E.S. (2007) Neuronal migration in the adult brain: are we there yet? Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 8(2):141-151.
Ghashghaei H.T., Weber J., Pevny L., Schmid R., Schwab M.H., Lloyd K.C., Eisenstat D.D., Lai C., Anton E.S. (2006) The role of neuregulin-ErbB4 interactions on the proliferation and organization of cells in the subventricular zone. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences103(6): 1930-1935.
Anton E.S.*, Ghashghaei H.T.*, Weber J.L., McCann C., Fischer T.M., Cheung I.D., Gassmann M., Messing A., Klein R., Schwab M.H., Lloyd K.C.K., Lai C. (2004) Receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB4 modulates neuroblast migration and placement in the adult forebrain. Nature Neuroscience 7(12): 1319-1328. *Authors contributed equally