Su-Chun Zhang (born 1963 in

Wenling Wenling ( Wenling dialect: Ueng-ling Zy ; ) is a coastal county-level city in the municipal region of Taizhou, in southeastern Zhejiang province, China. It borders Luqiao and Huangyan to the north, Yuhuan to the south, Yueqing to the west, lo ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

), is an American

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

researcher Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

Biography

Zhang obtained MD from the

Wenzhou Medical College Wenzhou Medical University (WMU); ), designated as a key university in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, is an institution of higher learning under the leadership of Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbo ...

, Wenzhou, and PhD from the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Zhang was Professor of Anatomy and Neurology (now Neuroscience) and a research group leader at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In January 2005, Zhang's group differentiated human blastocyst stem cells into neural stem cells, then further into the starts of

motor neuron A motor neuron (or motoneuron), also known as efferent neuron is a neuron whose cell body is located in the motor cortex, brainstem or the spinal cord, and whose axon (fiber) projects to the spinal cord or outside of the spinal cord to directly o ...

s, and eventually into spinal motor neuron cells (which play important role in delivering information from the

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

to the

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue that extends from the medulla oblongata in the lower brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone) of vertebrate animals. The center of the spinal c ...

in the human body). The artificially generated motor neurons exhibited profiles the same as those normal natural ones, including functions like

electrophysiological Electrophysiology (from ee the Electron#Etymology, etymology of "electron" ; and ) is the branch of physiology that studies the electrical properties of biological cell (biology), cells and tissues. It involves measurements of voltage change ...

activity which is the signature of

neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

s. Zhang described this study, "... you need to teach the blastocyst stem cells to change step by step, where each step has different conditions and a strict window of time". This research would have high significance for those human diseases or injuries related to spinal cord or motor neurons. Zhang's next step focused on the communicational ability of these newly generated neurons when they are transplanted into a living

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

.Generation of Human Motor Neurons from Stem Cells

References

External links

Prof. Zhang @ Duke-NUSProf. Zhang @ Waisman Center, UW–MadisonZhang Lab @ UW–MadisonSu-Chun Zhang, Affiliate, Neuroscience Training Program (NTP)

Exploring the Promise of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Suchun 21st-century American biologists Educators from Wenzhou Stem cell researchers University of Saskatchewan alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty 1963 births Living people Chinese medical researchers Scientists from Wenzhou Biologists from Zhejiang

Biography

See also

References

External links