Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program | University of California, San Francisco

Ben Cheyette, MD, PhD
Wnt Signaling in Development and Function of the Mammalian Brain

Selected Publications | Complete Publications

phone	(415) 476-7826
email	bc@lppi.ucsf.edu
additional websites	Lab Website The Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction Neuroscience Graduate Program
secondary research affiliation	Developmental & Stem Cell Biology

Signaling and the Cytoskeleton during Embryonic Development and in Brain Cells

We are investigating intracellular proteins that regulate signaling pathways and cytoskeletal dynamics, including in brain cells (neurons). We seek to understand how these proteins operate both in the developing embryo and in the brain. Our embryonic studies are particularly relevant to birth defects and cancer, whereas our brain studies are relevant to the biology of mental illnesses such as autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. We have found that these approaches are highly complementary: our discoveries in the embryo inform our investigations in the brain and vice-versa. For example, our recent work has uncovered critical dual roles for one protein during gastrulation (embryonic tissue morphogenesis) at the primitive streak, as well as later in the formation and maintenance of neuronal dendrites and synapses. The experimental tools we primarily use are recombinant DNA technology, mammalian tissue culture, and gene-targeted and transgenic strains of laboratory mice.

Selected Publications

Okerlund ND, Kivimäe S, Peng I-f, Ullian EM, Cheyette BNR. Mammalian hippocampal neurons require Dact1 for dendrite, spine, and excitatory synapse development. under review

Suriben R, Kivimäe S, Fisher DA, Moon RT, Cheyette, BNR. Posterior Malformations in Dact1 mutant mice arise through misregulated Vangl2 at the Primitive Streak. Nature Genetics 41, 977 - 985 (2009)

Louie S, Yang XY, Conrad WH, Muster J, Angers S, Moon RT, Cheyette BNR. Modulation of the ß-catenin Signaling Pathway by the Dishevelled-associated Protein Hipk1. PLoS ONE, 4: e4310, 2009.

Cheyette, BNR, Cheyette, SNR, Cusmano-Ozog, K, Enns, GM. Dopa-responsive dystonia presenting as delayed and awkward gait. Pediatric Neurology, 38: 273-275, 2008.

Jiang, T, Tan, J, Li, J, Kivimäe, S, Zhuang, L, Lee, PY, Chan, MTW, Liu, ET, Cheyette, BNR, Yu, Q. DACT3 is a Key Epigenetic Regulator of Wnt/ß-catenin Signaling in Colorectal Cancer and is a Therapeutic Target of Histone Modifications. Cancer Cell, 13: 529-541, 2008.

Suriben, R., Fisher, DA, Cheyette, BNR. Dact1 Presomitic Mesoderm Expression Oscillates in phase with Axin2 in the Somitogenesis Clock of Mice. Dev Dyn, 235: 3177-3183, 2006.

Fisher, DA, Kivimäe, S, Hoshino, J, Suriben, R, Martin, P-M, Baxter, N, Cheyette, BNR. Three Dact Gene Family Members are Expressed During Embryonic Development and in the Adult Brains of Mice. Dev Dyn Mouse Development Special Issue, 235: 2620-2630, 2006.

Kovoor, A, Seyffarth, P, Ebert, J, Barghshoon, S, Ching-Kang, C, Schwarz, S, Axelrod, JD, Cheyette, BNR, Simon, MI, Lester, HA, and Schwarz, J. D2-dopamine Receptors Colocalize RGS9-2 via the RGS9 DEP domain and RGS9 knockout mice develop dyskinesias associated with dopamine pathways. J Neurosci. 25: 2157-65, 2005.

Cheyette, BNR, Waxman, JS, Miller, JR, Takemaru, KI, Sheldahl, LC, Khlebtsova, N, Fox, EP, Earnest, T, and Moon, RT. Dapper, a Dishevelled-Associated Antagonist of ß-catenin and JNK Signaling, is required for Notochord Formation, Developmental Cell. 2: 449-461, 2002.

Cheyette, BNR, Green, PJ, Martin, K, Garren, H, Hartenstein, V, and Zipursky, SL. (1994) The Drosophila sine oculis locus encodes a homeodomain-containing protein required for the development of the entire visual system. Neuron. 12: 977-996, 1994.

information last updated August 2009