Hwai-Jong Cheng
Associate Professor
Center for Neuroscience
1515 Newton Court / Room 604E
Office: 530.752.5323
Lab: 530.754.4159
hjcheng (at) ucdavis (dot) edu
For the latest information go to Center for Neuroscience and Cheng Lab websites.
M.D., National Taiwan University - Medicine, 1989
PhD., Harvard University - Cell and Developmental Biology, 1995
| Awards: Pharmacia Biotech & Science Prize for Young Scientists in Molecular Biology -1996 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Physician Postdoctoral Fellow - 1997 Whitehall Foundation Award - 2003 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award - 2004 Klingenstein Fellowship Award - 2004 |
Center for Neuroscience
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (School of Medicine)
Society for Neuroscience
The American Society for Cell Biology
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Cell and Developmental Biology
Neuroscience
Cheng, H.-J. and Flanagan. J.G.. Identification and cloning of ELF-1, a developmentally-expressed ligand for the Mek4 and Sek receptor tyrosine kinases. Cell 79:157-168. (1994)
Cheng, H.-J., Nakamoto, M., Bergemann, A. D. and Flanagan, J. G.. Complementary gradients in expression and binding of ELF-1 and Mek4 in development of the topographic retinotectal projection map. Cell 82:371-381. (1995)
Nakamoto, M.*, Cheng, H.-J.*, Friedman, G. C., McLaughlin, T., Hansen, M. J., Yoon, C. H., O'Leary, D. D. M. and Flanagan, J. G.. Topographically specific effects of ELF-1 on retinal axon guidance in vitro and retinal axon mapping in vivo. Cell 86:755-766 . (1996) (*equal contributions)
Cheng, H.-J. and Flanagan, J. G.. Cloning and characterization of RTK ligands using receptor-alkaline phosphatase fusion proteins. Methods Mol. Biol. 124: 313-34. (2001)
Cheng, H.-J.*, Bagri, A.*, Yaron, A., Stein, E., Pleasure, S. J., and Tessier-Lavigne, M.. Plexin-A3 Mediates Semaphorin Signaling and Regulates the Development of Hippocampal Axonal Projections. Neuron 32:249-63. (2001) (*equal contributions)
Huang, X., Cheng, H.-J. Tessier-Lavigne, M., Jin, Y.. Max-1, a novel PH/Myth4/FERM domain cytoplasmic protein implicated in netrin-mediated axon repulsion. Neuron 34: 563-76 (2002)
Bagri, A. *, Cheng, H.-J. *, Yaron, A., Pleasure, S. J., and Tessier-Lavigne, M.. Stereotyped pruning of long hippocampal axon branches triggered by retraction inducers of the Semaphorin family. Cell 113: 285-299. (2003) (*equal contributions)
Yaron, A, , Huang, P.-H., Cheng, H.-J.*, and Tessier-Lavigne, M.*. Differential requirement for Plexin-A3 and -A4 in mediating responses of sensory and sympathetic neurons to distinct class 3 Semaphorins. Neuron 45:513-523 (2005) (*co-senior authors)
Low, L. K., and Cheng, H.-J.. A little nip and tuck: axon refinement during development and axonal injury. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 15:549-556 (2005)
Liu, X.-B., Low, L. K., Jones, E. G., and Cheng, H.-J.. Stereotyped Axon Pruning via Plexin Signaling is Associated with Synaptic Complex Elimination in the Hippocampus. J. Neurosci. 25:9124-9134 (2005)
Low, L. K. and Cheng, H.-J.. Axon pruning: an essential step underlying the developmental plasticity of neuronal connections. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 361:1531-1544 (2006)
Waimey, K. E. and Cheng, H.-J.. Axon pruning and synaptic development: how are they per-plexin? The Neuroscientist 12:398-409 (2006)
Lucanic, M., Kiley, M., Ashcroft, N., LEtoile, N. and Cheng H.-J.. The C. elegans p21 activated kinases are differentially required for UNC-6/Netrin mediated commissural motor axon guidance. Development 133:4549-4559 (2006)
Faulkner, R. L., Low, L. K. and Cheng, H.-J.. Axonal pruning in the developing vertebrate hippocampus. Developmental Neuroscience, 29:6-13 (2007)
Chung, L., Yang, T.-L., Huang, H.-R., Hsu, S.-M., Cheng, H.-J. *, and Huang, P.-H. *. Semaphorin signaling facilitates cleft formation in the developing salivary gland. Development 134:2935-2945 (2007) (*co-senior authors)
Duan, X., Chang, J. H., Ge, S., Faulkner, R. L., Kim, J. Y., Kitabatake, Y., Liu, X.-b., Yang C.-H., Jordan, J. D., Ma, D. K., Liu, C. Y., Ganesan, S., Cheng, H.-J., Ming, G.-l., Lu, B., and Song, H. Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1 regulates integration of newly generated neurons in the adult brain. Cell 130:1146-1158 (2007)
Waimey, K.E., Huang, P.-H., Chen, M. and Cheng, H.-J. Plexin-A3 and plexin-A4 restrict the migration of sympathetic neurons but not their neural crest precursors. Developmental Biology 315:448-458 (2008)
Low, L. K., Liu, X.-B., Faulkner, R. L., Coble, J., and Cheng, H.-J.. Plexin signaling selectively regulates the stereotyped pruning of corticospinal axons from visual cortex. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105:8136-8141 (2008)
Faulkner, R. L., Low, L. K., Liu, X.-B., Coble, J., Jones, E. G., and Cheng, H.-J.. Dorsal turning of motor corticospinal axons at the pyramidal decussation requires plexin signaling. Neural Development 3:21 (2008)
Faulkner, R. L., Jang, M.-H., Liu, X.-B., Duan, X., Sailor, K. A., Kim, J. Y., Ge, S., Jones, E. G., Ming, G.-L., Song, H., and Cheng, H.-J.. Development of hippocampal mossy fiber synaptic outputs by new neurons in the adult brain. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105:14157- 14162 (2008)
Research Interests:
My lab studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms of axon guidance. We have used two model organisms, mouse and C. elegans, to study how molecules in the environment guide axons during embryonic development and how these environmental cues are interpreted inside the growing axon. Recently, we have also tried to address whether abnormalities in axon pruning can lead to developmental neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism.
Cheng laboratory / 1515 Newton Court, Room 603. - Sarah Parrish (Lab manager), Li-Ting Jang (Post-doctoral fellow), Andrey Goloshchapov (BMB graduate student), Kathryn Waimey (NSC graduate student), Regina Faulkner (NSC graduate student), Shih-Yu Chen (NSC graduate student), Christina Doan (Undergraduate student assistant), Florence Dorazi (Undergraduate student assistant), Kimberly Zhou (Undergraduate student assistant), Chen Gu (Undergraduate student assistant)
Developmental Neurobiology
NPB 100 Neurobiology - Term(s): Summer 1
NSC 201 Neuroanatomy - Term(s): Fall
NSC 224B Molecular and Development Neuroscience - Term(s): Spring
NSC 298 Developmental Neurobiology Journal Club - Term(s): Fall