Liam Chen

,

Credentials

MD, PhD

Bio

Significant progress has been made over the past two decades on the pathogenesis of individual neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), as well as their distinct neurodegenerative processes. However, different neurodegenerative syndromes have been mainly studied mechanistically in isolation. There has been a lack of concerted effort to ascertain whether and how these pathogenic processes may be linked to one another. The Chen laboratory is interested in understanding the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, developing diagnostic markers and validating therapeutic targets. The laboratory uses an interdisciplinary approach involving Drosophila model, rodent model, iPS cells and postmortem human brain tissue to study the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in central nervous system.

Research Summary

Publications

Khalifa MA, Gagner B, Chen L, Murugan P, Klein ME, Racila E, Amin K, Miller F, Stewart J, Ding Y, Farooqui M, Dasaraju S, and Adeyi OA.  Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence utilization audit by subspecialty in an academic setting: A step toward stewardship.  Annals of Diagnostic Pathology, Volume 67, 2023, 152214, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2023.152214.

Cho SM, Geocadin RG, Caturegli G, Chan V, White B, Dodd-O J, Kim B-O, Sussman M, Choi C-W, Whitman G, Chen LL. Understanding characteristics of acute brain injury in adult extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: An autopsy study. Crit Care Med. 2020;48(6):e532-e536. doi:10.1097/CCM.0000000000004289

Donde A, Sun M, Ling JP, Braunstein KE, Pang B, Wen X, Cheng X, Chen L and Wong PC. Splicing repression is a major function of TDP-43 in motor neurons. Acta Neuropathologica. 2019; 138 (11):813–826. doi: 10.1007/s00401-019-02042-8

Rodriguez F, Brosnan‐Cashman J, Allen S, Vizcaino MA, Giannini C, Camelo‐Piragua S, Webb M,Matsushita M, Wadhwani N, Tabbarah A, Hamideh D, Jiang L, Chen L, Arvanitis LD, Alnajar H, Barber J, Velasco AR, Orr B, Heaphy CM. Alternative lengthening of telomeres, ATRX loss and h3‐k27m mutations in histologically defined pilocytic astrocytoma with anaplasia. Brain Pathology. 2019. 29 (1):126-140..

Nie SK, Tan Y, Zhang Z, Chen G, Xiong J, Hu D, Ye K, Zhang Y, Cao X, Zhang ZH, Chen L. Bilateral implantation of shear stress modifier in ApoE knockout mouse induces cognitive impairment and tau abnormalities. Frontiers Aging Neuroscience. 2018. 10:303.

Nino DF, Zhou Q, Yamaguchi Y, Chen L, Guajardo A, Kannan S, Sodhi CP, Hackam D. Cognitive impairments induced by necrotizing enterocolitis can be prevented by inhibiting microglial activation in mouse brain. Science Translational Medicine. 2018. 10(471). pii:eaan0237 

Chen L. What triggers tauopathy in chronic traumatic encephalopathy? Neural Regeneration Research. 2018. 13(6): 985-986

Clinical Summary

Surgical Neuropathology; Molecular Pathology; Autopsy Neuropathology