Su Guo, Ph.D.
	In vivo progenitor cell behavior and dopamine neuron development in zebrafish
	Email: su.guo@ucsf.edu Websites: Under Construction
Selected Publications | Complete Publications

My laboratory uses a vertebrate model organism for genetics, the zebrafish Danio rerio, to understand how naïve progenitor cells navigate through their path to acquire a distinct identity of post mitotic neurons in vivo. As a model cell type, we investigate the commitment and differentiation of progenitor cells to dopaminergic neurons, whose degeneration leads to Parkinson’s disease, the most common movement disorder.

Our past work involves genetic screening for mutations that have deficits of dopaminergic neurons and molecular characterization of the genes disrupted by these mutations. Some of these genes may provide fundamental insights into the commitment and differentiation of neural stem cells, whereas other genes may give clues as to how the specific dopaminergic fate is granted. Our future work involves more mechanistic characterization of these genes at molecular, cellular, and biochemical levels, as well as identification of additional mutations that alter progenitor behavior and dopamine neuronal development.

Selected Publications

Guo, S., Y. Yamaguchi, S. Schilbach, T. Wada, A. Goddard, J. Lee, D. French, H. Handa, and A. Rosenthal. (2000) A regulator of transcriptional elongation, which is required for vertebrate neuronal development. Nature 408, 366-369.

Jeong, J., Einhorn, Z., Mercurio S, Lee S, Lau B, Mione M, Wilson SW, Guo, S. Neurogenin1 is a determinant of zebrafish basal forebrain dopaminergic neurons and is regulated by the conserved zinc finger protein Tof/Fezl (2006). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 103, 5143-5148.

Jeong, J., Einhorn, Z., Mathur, P., Chen, L., Lee, S., Kawakami, K., and Guo, S. (2007) Patterning the zebrafish diencephalon by the conserved zinc finger protein Fezl. Development 134, 127-136.

Information last updated April 2007