Contact Information
bhatnr@musc.edu
843.792.7593
Research Interests
The current research interests of our laboratory (supported by NIH and
other grants) focus on the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying:
- Central nervous system (CNS) myelination
and demyelination
- Neuroinflammation that characterizes degenerative
diseases/conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple
sclerosis (MS), stroke and spinal cord injury. Specific projects utilize
primary cell
culture and animal models (i.e., mutant / knockout and induced) to investigate
signal transduction mechanisms,
in particular, MAP kinase cascades, that regulate:
- The development, differentiation
and death of oligodendrocytes - a specialized glial cell type that
is responsible for the formation and maintenance
of CNS myelin and also the target of immune attack in MS.
- The activation
and inflammatory responses of astrocytes and microglia, the two immune-regulatory
cells of the CNS.
In addition, we are interested in neuroglial stem cells with respect to
their lineage determination, malignant transformation (gliomagenesis) due
to dysregulated growth factor signaling as well as their potential utility
in CNS gene trans.
Publications