Ghashghaei, Troy

Assistant Professor
Ph.D.: Boston University
Postdoctoral: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Phone: (919) 513-6174
Fax: (919) 513-6465
E-mail: troy_ghashghaei@ncsu.edu

Research Area:

• Developmental neurobiology
• Adult neurogenesis
• Gene therapy

Current Research:

Our brains are delicate structures. 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 degeneration in the brain.  Discovery of adult neural stem cells in restricted regions has raised hope for a potential new strategy in utilization of endogenous mechanisms for brain repair.  Research in our laboratory is directed toward: 

1. Understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the development and functioning of adult neural stem cells;

2. Development of methods to alter the behavior of adult stem cells and the fate of their daughter cells, for future attempts in utilizing them for brain repair. 

We are currently making use of viral mediated gene transfer methods to assess the role of distinct transcriptional regulators in the development and function of adult neural stem cells.  In addition, we are using these methods to re-induce a number of embryonically active genes in the adult stem cell niche.

Equipment and Skills:

We continuously utilize techniques from the following disciplines to address our questions:

• Neuroanatomy (pathway tracing, neuro-histology)
• 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 methods (embryonic brain anatomy and mapping)
• Gene therapy techniques (viral mediated gene transfer)
• Confocal and multiphoton microscopy (fixed and live time-lapse imaging of cell- and slice- cultures)
• Mouse genetics (generation and characterization of knock-in and transgenic mice)
• Bioinformatics, Proteomics, and GeneChip Microarrays

Representative Publications:

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

Lab Personnel:

Raul Mondragon-Salinas, Research Assistant Lab Manager
resalina@ncsu.edu

Ben Jacquet, Graduate Student
bvjacque@ncsu.edu

Lab Phone: (919) 513-6841