PROF. YI-WEN LIU
Our team is using the zebrafish model to explore gene, development and disease of the kidney and the interrenal gland. Specifically, we are focused on the following issues:
(1) How various signaling transduction pathways orchestrate to regulate specification and growth of the kidney and interrenal organs;
(2) how steroidogenic and chromaffin cell lineages develop and integrate into a functional interrenal gland;
(3) how the blood vessel and its extracellular microenvironment direct morphogenetic movements and functions of the kidney and the interrenal gland.
MY LATEST RESEARCH
Using the zebrafish model, our recent study addresses how the Notch pathway regulates development and steroidogenesis of the interrenal tissue, the teleostean counterpart of the adrenal cortex.
The head kidney in the zebrafish interacts with the dorsal aorta (DA) and the posterior cardinal vein (PCV) to achieve glomerular filtration and definitive hematopoiesis, respectively. How the head kidney co-develops with both the axial artery and vein remains unclear. We found that in endodermless sox32-deficient embryos, the head kidney associated with the PCV but not the DA.