Doctor Jean De-Vellis
Director, Center for Developmental Neurobiology
Distinguished Professor Neurobiology
Professor Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
UCLA
Los Angeles (THAT, the USA)
Will give a conference
Friday, October 9th, 2015
At 2 pm
to the INCIA UMR CNRS 5287(INCIA UMR National Center for Scientific Research 5287)
( Site of Carreire, north zone, pack saddle. 2A, 2eme floor)
Invitation: Jérôme Badaut
Biography
Research Interest: Regulation of Gene Expression in Brain Cells My laboratory is interested
in the molecular mechanisms controlling neuronal and glial cells interaction during
development. What are the environmental signals and the mechanisms that regulate the
system events that fashion the progression of the multipotential neuroepithelial cells into
the enormous cellular phenotypic diversity of the nervous sytems? We have developed rat
brain culture system capable of recapitulating important developmental events of glial
cells and neurons. These model systems have been used to identify growth factors and
other agents that regulated proliferation, survival and differentiation in a cell specific
manner. In this way, many environmental signals and numerous cell processes have been
correlated with the appearance of different neural phenotypes. The expression of
regulatory genes such as transcription factors particularly those who are lineage
restricted, are regulated in a combinatorial manner by growth factors, hormones,
neurotransmitters and cytokines. This research has helped define at the molecular level the
plasticity of brain cells and their potential for regeneration. Regeneration in
dysmyelinating rat mutants has been achieved by transplantation of glia progenitor cells.
A main focus of the laboratory is on development of the oligodendrocytes, the myelin
forming cells in the central nervous system and a key cell in brain iron homeostasis. The
growth factors and other agents studied include neurotrophins, (NGF, BDNF, NT3) basis
fibroblast growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, transferrin, glucocorticoid
hormones, retinoic acid and various cytokines known to be active in the immune system.
Recent findings suggest that astrocytes microglia and neurons provide key signals for
oligodendrocyte survival and differentiation.