B.S. Molecular Genetics Graduate Student, Interdisiplinary Neuroscience PHD Program, BHSI Brain development requires the precise temporal expression and function of proteins to dictate correct neural progenitor cell (NPC) behaviors. I study the RNA-binding protein Lin28 and its capacity to drive NPC fates at the post-transcriptional level during development. NPCs have recently been discovered to be susceptible to infection and damage by the Zika virus during gestation. Our work has elucidated how the Zika virus may cause brain damage in part through disrupting neurovascular development and the blood brain barrier, as well as differences in the damage potential of different lineage isolates and Dengue virus infection in brain development. Awards & Funding: NIH Blueprint Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award (F99/K00) - 2017 - 2023 ARCS Foundation Fellowship - 2016 - 2019 NIH T32 Genetics Training Grant - 2016 - 2017 Erlanger Graduate Fellowship for Aging Research - 2015 - 2016 Graduate Student Assistantship - 2014 - 2016 Scholars of Excellence Fellowship - 2013 - 2014 Foundation Graduate Fellowship - 2013 - 2014 EGRF Award - 2013 - 2014 Selected Publications Selected Publications: Shao Q*, Herrlinger S*, Zhu YN, Yang M, Goodfellow F, Stice S, Qi XP, Brindley MA, Chen JF. The African Zika virus MR-766 is more virulent and causes more severe brain damage than current Asian lineage and Dengue virus. Development 2017 : doi: 10.1242/dev.156752. http://dev.biologists.org/content/early/2017/10/09/dev.156752 Shao Q*, Herrlinger S*, Yang SL, Lai F, Moore JM, Brindley MA, Chen JF. Zika virus infection disrupts neurovascular development and results in postnatal microcephaly with brain damage. Development. 2016 Oct 11. pii: dev.143768. http://dev.biologists.org/content/early/2016/10/08/dev.143768.long Yang M, Liang C, Swaminathan K, Herrlinger S, Lai F, Shiekhattar R, Chen JF. A C9ORF72/SMCR8-containing complex regulates ULK1 and plays a dual role in autophagy. Science Advances. 2016 Sept 1; 2(9):e1601167. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/9/e1601167.abstract Benraiss A, Wang S, Herrlinger S, Li X, Chandler-Militello D, Mauceri J, Burm HB, Toner M, Osipovitch M, Jim Xu Q, Ding F, Wang F, Kang N, Kang J, Curtin PC, Brunner D, Windrem MS, Munoz-Sanjuan I, Nedergaard M, Goldman SA. 2016. Human glia can both induce and rescue aspects of disease phenotype in Huntington disease. Nature Communications. 2016 Jun 7;7:11758. http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160607/ncomms11758/full/ncomms11758.html Yang SL, Yang M, Herrlinger S, Liang C, Lai F, Chen JF. MiR-302/367 regulate neural progenitor proliferation, differentiation timing, and survival in neurulation. Developmental Biology. 2015 Dec 1;408(1):140-50. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012160615301044 Yang M, Yang SL, Herrlinger S, Liang C, Dzieciatkowska M, Hansen KC, Desai R, Nagy A, Niswander L, Moss EG, Chen JF. Lin28 promotes the proliferative capacity of neural progenitor cells in brain development. Development. 2015 May 1;142(9):1616-27. http://dev.biologists.org/content/142/9/1616.short (* authors contributed equally to this work)
