Daniel A. Lim, MD, PhD
Staff Physician, Surgery Service, SFVAMC
Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery, Director of Restorative Neurosurgery, UCSF
Email: Daniel.Lim@va.gov
Programming Stem Cells for the Genesis of New Neurons
Dr. Lim is the principal investigator of a laboratory that studies the epigenetic (genetic changes not involving DNA sequencing) control of neural stem cell fate. Since 1996, he has been studying the cellular and molecular biology of adult brain neural stem cells in a region of the brain called the subventricular zone. For neural stem cells to make neurons, daughter cells need to express certain sets of genes while repressing others. The establishment of such lineage-specific transcriptional programs is in part regulated by chromatin structure - the "packaged" state of DNA with histone proteins. His current research is focused on a chromatin remodeling factor called MLL1, which he has recently shown to be essential for the genesis of new neurons from postnatal brain stem cells. Dr. Lim's long-term research goals are to define the genetic programs and molecular mechanisms for the birth of new neurons from adult brain stem cells, and to translate these discoveries into cell and genetic therapies for neurodegenerative disease and injury.
Lim DA, Suarez-Farinas M, Menn B, Naef F, Hacker C, Patil N, Takabayashi H, Alvarez-Buylla A. 2006. In vivo transcriptional profile analysis reveals RNA splicing and chromatin remodeling as prominent processes for adult neurogenesis. Mol Cell Neurosci 31:131-48.
Lim DA, Huang Y-C, Swigut T, Mirick AL, Garcia-Verdugo JM, Wysocka J, Ernst P, Alvarez-Buylla A. 2009. Chromatin remodeling factor Mll1 is essential for neurogenesis from postnatal neural stem cells. Nature doi:10.1038 (Epub ahead of print).
