Title: A tale of two organs: mechanisms of thymus and parathyroid organogenesis

Speaker: Dr. Nancy Manley

Professor and Associate Head, Dept of Genetics

Chair, Interdepartmental Developmental Biology Group

Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA.

Place: A501

Time: 2012.5.22 10:30am

Contact: 64807302 （Prof. ZHAO Yong）

Dr. Manley’s lab is primarily focused on studying the “life history” of the thymus, the primary lymphoid organ responsible for the generation of T cells. This approach encompasses the evolution, fetal development, postnatal function, and aging of this critical organ. Their basic hypothesis is that these diverse aspects of the biology of the organ are controlled by common regulatory networks, cellular dynamics, and physiological processes. They also study the parathyroid, which is required for calcium homeostasis, and has a shared developmental ontogeny with the thymus.

Representative Publications:

Chen, L., S. Xiao and N.R. Manley. 2009. Foxn1 is required to maintain the postnatal thymic microenvironment in a dosage-sensitive manner. Blood 113:567-74.

Xiao, S., D.M. Su and N.R. Manley. 2008. T cell development from kit-negative progenitors in the Foxn1D/D mutant thymus. J. Immunology 180: 914-921.

Xiao, S., D.M. Su and N.R. Manley. 2007. Atypical memory phenotype T cells with low homeostatic potential and impaired TCR signaling and regulatory T cell function inFoxn1D/D mutant mice. J. Immunology 179: 8153-8163

Liu, Z., S. Yu and N.R. Manley. 2007. Gcm2 is required for the differentiation and survival of parathyroid precursor cells in the parathyroid/thymus primordia. Developmental Biology 305: 333-346.

Blackburn, C.C. and N.R. Manley 2004. Developing a new paradigm For thymus organogenesis. Nature Reviews Immunology 4: 278-289.

Gordon, J., V. Wilson, N.F. Blair, N.R. Manley and C.C. Blackburn. 2004. Functional evidence for a single endodermal origin for the thymic epithelium. Nature Immunology5: 546-553.

Su, D.-M., S. Navarre, W.-J. Oh, B.G. Condie and N.R. Manley. 2003. A domain of Foxn1 required for crosstalk-dependent thymic epithelial cell differentiation. Nature Immunology 4: 1128-1135.