Former Faculty

Shyamala Mani

Research Areas

Neural Development and Stem Cells

Research Details

During cerebellar development, the external granule layer consisting of granule neuron progenitors proliferates extensively, expanding the progenitor pool. Later in development the progenitors exit the cell cycle and newly born granule neurons migrate inwards past the Purkinje cell layer to form the mature inner granule layer. During this developmental time window several extracellular signaling molecules that either cause cells to proliferate or differentiate are present in the external granule layer. They include morphogens such as Shh and Wnt, extracellular matrix proteins such as laminin and vitronectin and growth factors such as bFGF and BDNF, all of which are expressed in temporally and spatially overlapping patterns. Thus, this process of cell proliferation and differentiation occurs in a complex environment. We would like to understand how these diverse signals are integrated to enable the granule neuron progenitors to either self-renew or differentiate into granule neurons.

We are also interested in using human induced pluripotent stem cells to model human neurodevelopmental diseases in culture, especially in those cases where genetic mutations have been identified, such as in the case of Microcephaly where the protein is known to play a role in neurogenesis.