Ethan Hughes

Gtf2i-encoded transcription factor Tfii-i regulates myelination via Sox10 and Mbp regulatory elements - Nature Communications The transcriptional regulation of oligodendrocytes has an essential role in myelin formation and maintenance. Here, the authors identify the transcription factor Tfii-i as a regulator of myelin genes expression in the nervous system and show that its loss enhances myelin thickness and nerve conduction.

🚀 Our new paper is out in Nature Communications!

We uncovered a mechanistic switch to boost myelination: deleting Gtf2i in myelinating glia enhances Sox10/Mbp activity → thicker myelin, faster conduction, improved motor coordination.

Open access link:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations Travis!! Exciting story and great work

Thrilled to share our new paper @cp-cell.bsky.social:
“Microglia–astrocyte crosstalk regulates synapse remodeling via Wnt signaling.”

This work demonstrates the necessity of glia–glia communication and coordination during synapse remodeling.

🔗 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Faust et al., Cell 2025

Adaptor protein complex 2 (AP2) participates in biogenesis and homeostasis of myelin sheaths in the central nervous system Myelination of CNS axons requires oligodendrocytes to undergo extensive morphological changes by producing large amounts of myelin membrane with defined protein composition and structure. The formatio...

If you're interested in trafficking of #myelin constituents in #oligodendrocytes, and of course you are, you may want to check out our new preprint. It's very nice PhD work by @sophiesiems.bsky.social, and we're grateful to all who contributed!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Metformin alters mitochondria-related metabolism and enhances human oligodendrocyte function Nature Communications - Metformin is under clinical trial for brain neuroprotection but how it may work is poorly understood. Here, the authors show that metformin helps myelin formation by human...

Our new paper on metformin, myelin, mitochondria and metabolism is now out at rdcu.be/eDbFD
Thanks to Nina and all of the team!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

UNIV - Research Specialist I - Department of Neurosciences Job Description Summary The Li Lab at MUSC is seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented Research Specialist I to join our dynamic neuroscience research team. This position offers an excellent opp...

Please RT: My lab in the Neuroscience Dept at MUSC is hiring a technician. We study oligodendrocytes — unique non-neuronal brain cells — using cutting-edge imaging. Recent grads especially encouraged to apply. Feel free to reach out! #neurojobs
musc.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/MUSC/job/Cha...

Discovery of oligodendrocyte enhancers that regulate Sox10 expression Author summary Oligodendrocytes are a special cell type in brain and spinal cord and form myelin sheaths around axons. Myelin sheaths are lipid-rich structures that are essential for the rapid transmi...

Discovery of oligodendrocyte enhancers that regulate Sox10 expression

journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

#oligodendrocyte
#myelin

TMEM63A, associated with hypomyelinating leukodystrophies, is an evolutionarily conserved regulator of myelination - PubMed Infantile hypomyelinating leukodystrophy 19 (HLD19) is a rare genetic disorder where patients exhibit reduced myelin in central nervous system (CNS) white matter tracts and present with varied neurolo...

Fantastic new study on the role of TMEM63a in oligodendrocyte-dependent myelination in the CNS from the Swetha Murthy lab: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40694323/

We had fun assembling images and describing approaches for imaging oligodendrocytes and myelin in vivo, in organotypic slices, and in fixed tissues. This work started in the lab of @jgrutzendler.bsky.social over 10 years ago and continues to keep us busy.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Thanks Lindsay! Super excited!

Three-photon microscopy: an emerging technique for deep intravital brain imaging - Nature Reviews Neuroscience Optical microscopy allows neural cells to be studied in the intact brain, but imaging deep neural tissue presents substantial challenges. Prevedel and colleagues outline the principles of three-photon...

A nice Review on 3P neuroimaging in NR Neuro. The images never fail to amaze me. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Awesome work Stacey! Big congrats to you and your team!

Excitatory-neuron-derived interleukin-34 supports cortical developmental microglia function Neuron-microglia interactions dictate the development of neuronal circuits in the brain. However, the factors that regulate these processes across dev…

Excited to share this new paper from the lab, now out in @cp-immunity.bsky.social! Led by the talented @bendevlin.bsky.social and in collab with @anneschaefer.bsky.social. a brief 🧵

Subcellular proteomics and iPSC modeling uncover reversible mechanisms of axonal pathology in Alzheimer’s disease - Nature Aging Axonal spheroids disrupt neural circuits in Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, using subcellular proximity labeling proteomics in human brain and iPSC modeling, the authors link spheroid formation to...

Excited to share that two studies from my postdoc research were published back to back! In the first, we uncovered the molecular basis of axon spheroids—a key hallmark of Alzheimer's disease—and demonstrated their potential reversibility.
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Awesome story Jaime, congratulations to you and your team!

Happy to share our latest publication on subcellular myelin proteomics and structural changes in Alzheimer disease www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Three-photon in vivo imaging of neurons and glia in the medial prefrontal cortex with sub-cellular resolution - Communications Biology Three-photon in vivo imaging provides access to medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and spinal cord in mice at up to 1.7 mm depth of neurons, dendrites, spines, astrocytes and microglia.

It is out! Read how you achieve 1.7 mm deep 3-photon imaging in prefrontal cortex with dendritic spine resolution over a week.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Activity-driven myelin sheath growth is mediated by mGluR5 - Nature Neuroscience Employing pharmacology, genetics and all-optical approaches in zebrafish, Braaker et al. find that neuronal activity influences the growth of myelin sheaths along axons by signaling through metabotrop...

For those who want a distraction and/ or are interested, here's the latest from the group, led by Phil Braaker

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations Amy!!!

Our lab's 1st paper, led by @fchrisbennett.bsky.social & @waisenberg.bsky.social. A decade thinking how to directly assess the impact of microglia replacement. Yrs of hard work. This kind of work is needed to expand brain disease care for kids & the vision for safer, more effective cell therapy.

Excited to share this new work led by the talented Mike Dolan @dolan in collaboration with Evan macosko
See below for details and preprint

Fast, accurate, and versatile data analysis platform for the quantification of molecular spatiotemporal signals Optical recording of intricate molecular dynamics is becoming an indispensable technique for biological studies, accelerated by the development of new…

Fun to have contributed a little to this, led by the team of the incomparable Guoqiang Yu.

Suspect that this will prove to be an immensely popular image analysis platform for interrogation of dynamic signallingl!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congratulations Zeeba and team!

Senescent cell reduction does not improve recovery in mice under experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) induced demyelination - Journal of Neuroinflammation Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by immune cell-driven demyelination and progressive neurodegeneration. Senescent cells (SCs)...

Happy to see my work published in Journal of Neuroinflammation! Thanks to my amazing mentor @jkhuang.bsky.social and all the co-authors George Melchor, Meghan Bullard, @philgrossphd.bsky.social for their continued help and support. jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Excited to share our latest paper!

We argue that in MS, the primary immune attack isn’t on myelin or myelinated axons — but on the ion & water homeostasis machinery in astrocyte endfeet.

A short thread on this new perspective

1/11

Interested in #oligodendrocyte metabolism and/or #multiplesclerosis? Our paper is now at Biorxiv! We show that oligos express MCT2, the high affinity monocarboxylate transporter, well known for supplying neurons with astrocyte-derived lactate (astro-neuron lactate shuttle)👇

🥼 Janelia researchers led by @boazmohar.bsky.social @nspruston.bsky.social @rhodamine110.bsky.social & @svoboda314.bsky.social @alleninstitute.bsky.social have developed a new imaging tool that maps brain-wide changes in neuronal connections. 🧠

🔗 www.janelia.org/news/new-ima...

Congrats Lucas and team, cool study!

A single-cell transcriptomic atlas of sensory-dependent gene expression in developing mouse visual cortex Summary: Single-cell RNA sequencing of developing mouse visual cortex uncovers cell type-specific gene programs induced by sensory experience. All cell types mounted transcriptional responses to the e...

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

New work from the lab characterizing sensory-dependent transcriptomes in mouse V1 across neuronal and glial cell types. Some fun nuggets in here, and all data publicly available for download and re-analysis. Happy gene hunting!