Glial Progenitor Populations in the Brain

GRP cells from the cortex.

This project is an ongoing collaboration with the Proschel/ Noble laboratory where we define and characterize progenitor cells in the brain.

Through the work in the Chris Proschel laboratory it became increasingly clear that Astrocytes generated from embryonic glial restrict progenitor cells (GRP cells) can display both positive as well as negative functions depending the signaling molecules that were used to induce their differentiation.

While the Chris Proschel laboratory is using the astrocyte population for therapeutic transplantation approaches, we are focused on defining the various GRP cells that give rise to these astrocytes.

Questions we are addressing in respect to this research are:

1. Are GRP cells derived from the embryonic spinal cord identical or different from GRP cells derived from the embryonic telencephalus?
2. Do astrocytes derived from different GRP cells pools have different functional profiles?
3. Do all GRP cells give rise to more mature oligodendrocytes progenitor cells?