Yevgenya Grinblat

Position title: Professor, Biology Ph.D. (1993) Harvard University

Phone: (608) 265-3219

Address:
Research Interests: genetic control of cranial morphogenesis

Our research uses zebrafish as a model to interrogate gene networks that control cranial development in vertebrate embryos. We have tackled these complex networks from the vantage point of an important but poorly understood node: a conserved zinc-finger transcription factor Zic2. Mutations in human ZIC2 are linked to a congenital brain malformation, holoprosencephaly, and our studies to date have uncovered novel roles for zebrafish Zic2 in key cell lineages that comprise the head: the neural tube, the eye (including neural retina and ocular vasculature) and neural crest-derived craniofacial cartilages. Our findings indicate that Zic2 functions cell-autonomously in these lineages, consistent with data from other model systems where Zic2 is emerging as an important control of pluripotency and cell fate specification. How Zic2 functions in these processes is still poorly understood and we are using our unique collection of zebrafish tools and cutting-edge methods, e.g. CUT&RUN and in vivo proximity labeling, to address this gap in our knowledge.

The retina and rostral brain arise from the same embryonic primordium. The frequent association between holoprosencephaly (a cerebral malformation) and coloboma (a large gap in the retina) reflects this shared origin and suggests key genetic controls of retinal and brain development are also shared. Confocal image on the left shows the head of a zebrafish embryo, with brain nuclei in blue and portions of the eyes in purple (from Sedykh et al., 2017). Image on the right shows the eye of a zebrafish embryo that lacks functional Zic2 and has developed with retinal coloboma (imaging by I. Sedykh).

Complete list of publications can be found here.