Degrees

• Ph.D.

Research Area

• Genetics of Neural Development, Myelination and Neural Stem Cells

Current Research

• We use zebrafish as a model system to investigate problems in vertebrate neural development. We are particularly interested in mechanisms that specify neurons and glial cells from proliferative neural precursors during embryogenesis, regulate migration and differentiation of oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cell type of the vertebrate central nervous system, and maintain and specify adult neural stem cells. Our principal experimental strategies include transgenics, mutant analysis and imaging. We test hypotheses concerning the roles of signal transduction pathways in regulating neural development and screen for mutations and chemicals that influence stem cell proliferation and oligodendrocyte specification, migration and differentiation.

Research Associates

• Hae-Chul Park, Ph.D.
• David Mawdsley, Ph.D.
• Norio Takada, Ph.D.
• Drew Latimer, Ph.D.
• Bhaskar Sarmah, Ph.D. (Susan Wente lab)
• Jennifer Miller (Research Assistant)
• Heather Snell (Research Assistant)

Graduate Students

• Jimann Shin
• Karen McFarland
• Brandon Kirby
• Randolph Roberts
• Denise Zannino
• Julia Snyder

Selected Publications

• Latimer, A. J., Dong, X., Markov, Y. and Appel, B. (2002) Delta-Notch signaling induces hypochord development in zebrafish. Development 129, 2555-2563.
• Park, H.-C., Mehta, A., Richardson, J, and Appel, B. (2002) olig2 is required for zebrafish primary motor neuron and oligodendrocyte development. Developmental Biology 248, 356-368.
• Park, H.-C. and Appel, B. (2003) Delta-Notch signaling regulates oligodendrocyte specification. Development 130, 3747-3755.
• Appel, B., Marasco, P., McClung, L.E. and Latimer, A.J. (2003) lunatic fringe regulates Delta-Notch induction of hypochord in zebrafish. Developmental Dynamics 228, 281-286.
• Shin, J., Park, H.-C., Topczewska, J.M., Mawdsley, D.J. and Appel, B. (2003) Neural cell fate analysis in zebrafish using olig2 BAC transgenics. Methods in Cell Science. 25, 7-14.
• Garg, R, Geng, C-D., Miller, J.L., Callens, S., Tang, X., Appel, B. and Xu, B. (2004) Molecular cloning and characterization of the catalytic domain of zebrafish homolog of the Ataxia-Telangiectasia-Mutated. Molecular Cancer Research 2, 348-353.
• Park, H.-C., Shin, J. and Appel, B. (2004) Spatial and temporal regulation of ventral spinal cord precursor specification by Hedgehog signaling. Development 131, 5959-5969.
• Latimer, A.J., Shin, J. and Appel, B. (2005) her9 mediates Nodal signaling to promote floor plate development. Developmental Dynamics 232, 1098-1104.
• Sarmah, B., Latimer, A.J., Appel, B., and Wente, S.R. (2005) Zebrafish ipk1 is required for left-right asymmetry. Developmental Cell 9, 133-145.
• Park, H.-C., Shin, J., Boyce, J. and Appel, B. (2005) Oligodendrocyte Specification in Zebrafish Requires Notch-regulated Cdki Function. Journal of Neuroscience 25, 6836-6844.