Discovering

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCHER

Qin Shen , Ph.D
Assistant Professor
e-mail: shenq@mail.amc.edu

Education

2001 - Ph.D from Albany Medical College

Current Research

The central nervous system (CNS) remains one of the most difficult tissues to repair. Its enormous cellular complexity and intricate structure present significant hurdles for cell replacement strategies. Nevertheless, the devastating affects of neurodegenerative diseases, disorders and trauma provide strong impetus to progress towards CNS therapeutic repair. The first hurdle to overcome for cell replacement is to establish a suitable cell source. Stem cells provide promise as a neural cell source, but to realize their therapeutic potential it is imperative to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying their self-renewal and differentiation, and the roles of micro-environmental factors, which are now appreciated as key regulators of stem cell fate. This is important because we need to know that cells eventually implanted in patients will perform as predicted, and not make unwanted cell types or over-proliferate. My research interests include: Neural stem cell fate choices Molecular mechanism regulating self-renewal Interaction between neural stem cells and endothelial cells which could be critical for preserving stem cell properties in their niche. Stem cell function in brain tumors.

References

1. Shen Q, Wang Y, Dimos JT, Fasano CA, Phoenix TN, Lemischka IR, Ivanova NB, Stifani S, Morrisey EE, Temple S. The timing of cortical neurogenesis is encoded within lineages of individual progenitor cells. Nat Neurosci. 2006 Jun;9(6):743-51. Epub 2006 May 7.



2. Shen Q, Goderie SK, Jin L, Karanth N, Sun Y, Abramova N, Vincent P, Pumiglia K, Temple S. Endothelial cells stimulate self-renewal and expand neurogenesis of neural stem cells. Science. 2004 May 28;304(5675):1338-40. Epub 2004 Apr 1.



3. Li HS, Wang D, Shen Q, Schonemann MD, Gorski JA, Jones KR, Temple S, Jan LY, Jan YN. Inactivation of Numb and Numblike in embryonic dorsal forebrain impairs neurogenesis and disrupts cortical morphogenesis. Neuron. 2003 Dec 18;40(6):1105-18.



4. Al-Kofahi O, Radke RJ, Goderie SK, Shen Q, Temple S, Roysam B. Automated cell lineage construction: a rapid method to analyze clonal development established with murine neural progenitor cells. Cell Cycle. 2006 Feb;5(3):327-35. Epub 2006 Feb 1.



5. Shen Q, Zhong W, Jan YN, Temple S. Asymmetric Numb distribution is critical for asymmetric cell division of mouse cerebral cortical stem cells and neuroblasts. Development. 2002 Oct;129(20):4843-53.