lab members and funding publications and PDFs PhD opportunities lab protocols request a mouse strain undergraduate teaching UCL Home Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research UCL Research Dept of Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB)
William D Richardson PhD FLS FMedSci Developmental Neuroscience
Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research,
tel +44 (0)20 7679 6729 fax +44 (0)20 7209 0470
Cell-cell
interactions in the developing central nervous system
The
vertebrate central nervous system (CNS) is immensely complicated, yet it has
simple beginnings. The huge number and variety of cells in the mature CNS all
develop from a much smaller number of precursor (stem) cells in the
embryonic neural tube. Two of the central questions of neurodevelopment - and
development in general – are: 1) How do stem cells
select their future fates? 2) How do stem cells generate their differentiated
progeny in correct numerical proportion to each other and to the size of the
embryo as a whole? We are addressing these issues, focusing on the development
of glial progenitor cells in the CNS. We take a multidisciplinary approach
including primary cell culture, in situ methods and genetic manipulation in
mice.
Pools of
precursor/ stem cells persist in the adult CNS.
Some inhabit the subventricular zones (SVZ) of the forebrain where they
produce new neurons for the olfactory bulb throughout life. Others reside in the hippocampus and
continuously generate new hippocampal interneurons in
the adult. Another population of cells
with stem-like properties – adult oligodendrocyte progenitors (OLPs, also known
as NG2 cells) - is scattered uniformly throughout the brain and spinal
cord. We recently provided evidence that
NG2 cells generate new myelinating oligodendrocytes during adulthood as well as
some projection neurons in the piriform cortex (primary olfactory cortex). Following injury or disease NG2 cells
generate additional cell types including astrocytes and Schwann cells. We are investigating the biology and
functions of the different populations of neural stem/ precursor cells and
their differentiated progeny in the adult CNS.
William D Richardson short CV
Tripathi, R.B., Rivers, L.E., Jamen, F.
Young, K.M. and Richardson, W.D. (2010). PDGFRA/
NG2 glia generate oligodendrocytes but few astrocytes in a murine
EAE model of demyelinating disease. J. Neurosci. 30,
16383-16390.
Zawadzka, M., Rivers, L., Fancy, S.P.J., Zhao, C.,
Tripathi, R., Jamen, F., Young, K.M.,Goncharevich,
A., Pohl, H., Rizzi, M., Rowitch, D.H., Kessaris, N., Suter, U., *Richardson, W.D.
and *Franklin, R.J.M. (2010). CNS-resident glial progenitor/stem cells produce Schwann
cells as well as oligodendrocytes during repair of CNS demyelination. Cell Stem Cell 6, 578-590. * joint senior authors
Rivers, L.E., Young, K.M., Rizzi, M., Jamen,
F., Psachoulia, K., Wade, A., Kessaris, N. and Richardson, W.D. (2008). PDGFRA/ NG2-positive glia generate
myelinating oligodendrocytes and piriform projection neurons in adult
mice. Nature Neuroscience 11, 1392-1401. [see News and Views: Kang, S.H.
and Bergles, D.E. (2008). Nat. Neurosci.
11, 1365-1367]
Young, K., Fogarty, M., Kessaris, N. and
Richardson, W.D. (2007). Subventricular
zone stem cells are heterogeneous with respect to their embryonic origins and
neurogenic fates in the adult olfactory bulb.
J. Neurosci. 27, 8286-8296.
Li, H., Lu, Y., Smith, H.K. and
Kessaris, N., Fogarty, M., Iannarelli, P.,
Grist, M., Wegner, M. and