Dr. Cai Jingli Cai, Ph.D.

Contact Dr. Cai

900 Walnut St.
Suite 462
Philadelphia, PA 19107

(215) 955-5363
(215) 955-2992 fax

Graduate School
Ph.D., University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

University Appointment
Research Instructor (2009)

Research and Clinical Interests
The main goal of my research is to discover an efficient way to get clinically applicable dopaminergic (DA) neurons differentiated from stem cells, such as human embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells. We have been investigating fate decision genes and profiling lineage stages of DA differentiation. By studying the differentiation mechanism, we hope to find an abundant source of cells capable of DAergic function in the brain to replace degenerated DA neurons in Parkinson disease patients.

Publications

Most recent Peer-reviewed Publications

  1. Dopaminergic neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells survive and integrate into 6-OHDA-lesioned rats
  2. Heterotopically transplanted CVO neural stem cells generate neurons and migrate with SVZ cells in the adult mouse brain
  3. Human amniotic fluid stem cells do not differentiate into dopamine neurons in vitro or after transplantation in vivo
  4. The role of Lmx1a in the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into midbrain dopamine neurons in culture and after transplantation into a Parkinson's disease model
  5. Gene expression profile of neuronal progenitor cells derived from hESCs: Activation of chromosome 11p15.5 and comparison to human dopaminergic neurons
  6. Increased dentate neurogenesis after grafting of glial restricted progenitors or neural stem cells in the aging hippocampus
  7. Whole genome analysis of human neural stem cells derived from embryonic stem cells and stem and progenitor cells isolated from fetal tissue
  8. SDF1α/CXCR4 signaling stimulates β-catenin transcriptional activity in rat neural progenitors
  9. Massively parallel signature sequencing profiling of fetal human neural precursor cells
  10. Assessing self-renewal and differentiation in human embryonic stem cell lines
  11. Neurogenesis in Tα-1 tubulin transgenic mice during development and after injury
  12. Development of antibodies to human embryonic stem cell antigens
  13. Comparison of the gene expression profile of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cell lines and differentiating embryoid bodies
  14. Immortalized neural stem cells differ from nonimmortalized cortical neurospheres and cerebellar granule cell progenitors
  15. Sox2 expression defines a heterogeneous population of neurosphere-forming cells in the adult murine brain
  16. Functional SDF1α/CXCR4 signaling in the developing spinal cord
  17. CD44 expression identifies astrocyte-restricted precursor cells
  18. Characterization of progenitor-cell-specific genes identified by subtractive suppression hybridization
  19. Dopaminergic differentiation of human embryonic stem cells
  20. Gap junctional communication is required to maintain mouse cortical neural progenitor cells in a proliferative state

View All Publications