Division of Molecular Neurogenetics

In the division of Molecular Neurogenetics, we aim to unravel the molecular mechanism drive brain development and brain diseases, including brain cancers. In the last years, We identified essential brain tumor stem cell regulators like TLX, and GPD1, which provide the proof-of-concept that a cancer stem cell KO leads to survival benefit in vivo (Cell Stem Cell, 2014, best papers of the year, highlighted in Nature Review Cancer). We recently identified GPD1 as the first dormant brain tumor stem cell marker and an essential regulator (Cell Stem Cell 2019). Dormant cancer cells across different tumor entities became a hot topic in recent years. We also unraveled the critical role of CHARGE syndrome protein CHD7 in governing cell differentiation, which is now widely accepted (Cell Stem Cell, 2013, Nature Comm, 2017). This also provides a basic molecular principle of understanding the human CHARGE syndrome.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
Currently, we are generating advanced human brain organoid and brain tumor organoid models to mimic the genetic and phenotypic features of brain tumors, we us single cell genomic and CRISPR/CAS9 genome editing tools to dissect the molecular and cellular heterogeneity in brain tumors, with particular interest on the dormant cancer stem cells. We will try to translate our findings into clinics very actively. Our goal is to identify effect treatment for glioblastoma, which remains to be one of the deadliest human cancers.