Thor Group - Control of cell fate and proliferation in the developing brain - School of Biomedical Sciences

The hypothalamus is a small structure in the centre of the human brain. Despite its small size, the hypothalamus controls a wide range of bodily functions, such as energy and fluid balance, core body temperature, circadian rhythm, sleep-wake states, stress responses, growth, reproduction, and social behaviours. The hypothalamus can perform this plethora of complex functions because of its staggering cell diversity, with hundreds of unique cell types that communicate with many areas of the brain, as well as with the vascular and endocrine systems. Dysfunction of the hypothalamus is observed in numerous human diseases, including neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Our research aims to understand how the hypothalamus forms and functions, and how it is affected in different human diseases. To this end, we are using mouse genetic models and human stem cell derived hypothalamic organoids.

The lab is supported by:

Australia Research Council Discovery Project
National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas Project

We are currently recruiting Honours and HDR students for projects relating to hypothalamus development, function and dysfunction, including those mentioned below. Please send your CV to Stefan Thor s.thor@uq.edu.au for review.

Project 1: Making sleep neurons in a dish
Project 2: Making fertility neurons in a dish
Project 3: The impact of neurodegeneration on the hypothalamus
Project 4: The impact of autism spectrum disorder on the hypothalamus

Professor Stefan Thor

Professor in Developmental Biology

School of Biomedical Sciences
Dr Cecilia Gomez Inclan

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

School of Biomedical Sciences
Dr Aswathi Gopalakrishnan

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

School of Biomedical Sciences
Rovan Wei

PhD student

School of Biomedical Sciences
Amirhossein Sheikhshahrokhdehkordi

PhD student

School of Biomedical Sciences
Elnaz Saeidi

PhD student

School of Biomedical Sciences
Wansaja Ranaweera

PhD student

School of Biomedical Sciences

For a full list of publications, visit eSpace

2024

Doe, CQ, Thor, S. (2024). 40 years of homeodomain transcription factors in the Drosophila nervous system. Development. 151, dev202910. PMID: 38819456; doi:10.1242/dev.202910.

Thor, S. (2024). Indirect neurogenesis in space and time. Nat Rev Neurosci, Jul 1. PMID: 38951687; doi:10.1038/s41583-024-00833-x.

Mitchell, B, Mu, E, Currey, L, Walters, S, Thor, S, Kasherman, M, Piper, M. (2024). A protocol for high-resolution episcopic microscopy and 3D volumetric analyses of the adult mouse brain. Neurosci Lett, 13:824. PMID: 38355003 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2024.137675.

Currey, L, Mitchell, B, Al-Kahlily, M, McElnea, SJ, Kozulin, P, Harkins, D, Pelenyi, A, Fenlon, L, Suarez, R, Kurniawan, ND, Burne, TH, Harris, L, Thor, S, Piper, M. (2024). Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 is critical for mouse glutamatergic neuron development. Cereb Cortex. In press.

2023

Balderson, B, Piper, M, Thor, S, Boden, M. (2023). Cytocipher detects significantly different populations of cells in single cell RNA-seq data. Bioinformatics, 39(7):btad435. PMID: 3744901. DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad435.

Mitchell, B, Thor, S, Piper, M. (2023). Cellular and molecular functions of SETD2 in the central nervous system. J Cell Sci. 136(21):jcs261406. PMID: 37921122 DOI: 10.1242/jcs.261406.

2022

Mora A, Rakar J, Monedero Cobeta I, Yaghmaeian Salmani B, Starkenberg, A, Thor, S*, Bodén, M*. (2022). Integrated gene landscapes uncover multi-layered roles of repressive histone marks during mouse CNS development (*co-corresponding authors). Nucleic Acid Res. 50(3):1280-1296. PMID: 35048973; DOI: /10.1093/nar/gkac006.

Yaghmaeian Salmani*, B, Balderson*, B, Bauer, S, Ekman, H, Starkenberg, A, Perlmann, T, Piper, M, Bodén, M, Thor, S. (2022). Selective requirement for PRC2 in the generation of specific hypothalamic neuronal sub-types. (*equal contribution). Development. 149(5):dev200076 PMID: 35245348; DOI: 10.1242/dev.200076.

Rubio-Ferrera, I, Baladrón-De Juan, P, Clarembaux-Badell, L, Truchado-Garcia, M, Thor, S, Benito-Sipos, J, Monedero Cobeta, I. (2022). Selective role of the DNA helicase Mcm5 in BMP retrograde signaling during Drosophila neuronal differentiation. PLoS Genet, 18(6):e1010255. PMID: 35737938; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010255.

Clarembaux-Badell L, Baladrón-de-Juan P, Gabilondo H, Rubio-Ferrera I, Millán I, Estella C, Valverde-Ortega FS, Cobeta IM, Thor, S*, Benito-Sipos*, J. (2022). Dachshund acts with Abdominal-B to trigger programmed cell death in the Drosophila central nervous system at the frontiers of Abd-B expression. Dev Neurobiol, Jul 7. *co-corresponding authors). PMID: 35796156; DOI: 10.1002/dneu.22894.

Harkins, D, Harvey, JT, Atterton, C, Ingrid Miller, I, Currey, L, Oishi, S, Kasherman, M, Davila, R, Harris, L, Green, K, Piper, H, Parton, RG, Thor, S, Cooper, HM, Piper, M. (2022). Hydrocephalus in Nfix^-/- mice is underpinned by changes in ependymal cell physiology. Cells, 11(15):2377. PMID: 35954220; DOI: 10.3390/cells11152377.

2021

2020

Sandberg, A, Ling, H, Gearing, M, Dombroski, B, Cantwell, L, R'Bibo, L, Levey, A, Schellenberg, G, Hardy, J, Fernius, J, Nyström, S, Svensson, S, Thor, S, Hammarström, P, Revesz, T, Mok, K. (2020). Fibrillation and molecular characteristics are coherent with clinical and pathological features of 4-repeat tauopathy caused by MAPT variant G273R. Neurobiol Dis, 146: 105079, 1-11. PMID: 32961270. DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2020.105079.

Arefin, B, Bahrampour, S, Salmani, YS, Monedero Cobeta, I, Rodriguez Curt J, Benito-Sipos, J, Baumgardt, M, Thor, S. (2020). Development of the Drosophila embryonic central nervous system: From neuroectoderm to unique neurons and glia. In F. Guillemot and K. Campbell, Editors-in-chief, Comprehensive Developmental Neuroscience, 2^nd edition, vol 3, chapter 29. Elsevier, Oxford, UK. ISBN: 978-0-12-814405-3. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-814405-3.00025-4.

Yaghmaeian Salmani, B and Thor, S. (2020). Genetic mechanisms controlling anterior expansion of the central nervous system. In Stephen Small and James Briscoe, Editors-in-chief, Current Topics in Developmental Biology, Gradients and Tissue Patterning, vol 137, chapter 11, 333-361. Elsevier, Oxford, UK. DOI: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2019.11.005.

Bahrampour, S, Thor, S. (2020). The five faces of Notch signalling during Drosophila melanogaster embryonic CNS development. In Jorg Reichrath, Editor-in-chief, Notch Signaling in Embryology and Cancer. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1218, chapter 3, 39-58. Springer Nature, Switzerland. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-34436-8.

2019

Arefin, B, Parvin, F, Bahrampour, S, Stadler, BC, Thor, S. (2019). Drosophila neuroblast selection is gated by Notch, Snail, SoxB and EMT interplay. Cell Reports, 29(11):3636-3651. PMID: 31825841. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.11.038

Curt, Jesús Rodriguez, Salmani, Behzad Yaghmaeian and Thor, Stefan (2019). Anterior CNS expansion driven by brain transcription factors. eLife, 8. DOI:10.7554/elife.45274

Bivik Stadler, Caroline, Arefin, Badrul, Ekman, Helen and Thor, Stefan (2019). PIP degron-stabilized Dacapo/p21Cip1 and mutations in ago act in an anti- versus pro-proliferative manner, yet both trigger an increase in Cyclin E levels. Development, 146 13: dev175927. DOI:10.1242/dev.175927

Bahrampour, S, Jonsson, C, Thor, S. (2019). Brain expansion promoted by Polycomb-mediated anterior enhancement of a neural stem cell proliferation program. PLoS Biol, 17(2): e3000163. PMID: 30807568. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000163.

Stratmann, J, Ekman, H, Thor, S. (2019). Branching gene regulatory network dictating different aspects of neuronal cell identity. Development, 146(6), dev174300. PMID: 30837222. DOI: 10.1242/dev.174300.

2018

Yaghmaeian Salmani, B, Monedero Cobeta, I, Rakar, J, Bauer, S, Rodriguez Curt J, Starkenberg, A, Thor, S. (2018). Evolutionary conserved anterior expansion of the central nervous system promoted by a conserved PcG-Hox program. Development, 145(7): 1-17 (dev160747). PMID: 29530878; DOI: 10.1242/dev.160747.

Monedero Cobeta, I, Bivik C, Li, J, Yu, P, Thor, S, Benito-Sipos, J. (2018). Specification of Drosophila neuropeptidergic neurons by the splicing factor Brr2. PLoS Genet, 14(8):e1007496. PMID: 30133436; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007496.

2017

Monedero Cobeta, I, Salmani, BY, Thor, S. (2017). Anterior-posterior gradient in neural stem and daughter cell proliferation governed by spatial and temporal Hox control. Curr Biol, 27(8):1161-1172. PMID: 28392108; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.023.

Stratmann, J, Thor, S. (2017). Neuronal cell fate specification by the molecular convergence of different spatio-temporal cues on a common initiator terminal selector gene. PLoS Genet, 13(4):e1006729. PMID: 28414802; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006729.

Bahrampour, S, Gunnar, E, Jonsson, C, Ekman, H, Thor, S. (2017). Neural lineage progression controlled by a temporal proliferation program. Dev Cell, 43(3): 332-348. PMID: 29112852; DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2017.10.004.

2016

Bivik, C, MacDonald, R, Gunnar, E, Mazouni, K, Schweisguth, F, Thor, S. (2016). Control of neural daughter cell proliferation by multi-level Notch/Su(H)/E(spl)HLH signaling. PLoS Genet, 12(4):e1005984. PMID: 27070787; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005984.

Gunnar, E, Bivik, C, Starkenberg, A, Thor, S. (2016). sequoia controls the TypeI>0 daughter proliferation switch in the Drosophila nervous system. Development, 143(20):3774-3784. PMID: 27578794; DOI: 10.1242/dev.139998.

Stratmann, J¹, Gabilondo, H¹, Benito-Sipos, J, Thor, S. (2016). Neuronal cell fate diversification controlled by sub-temporal action of Kruppel. eLife, Oct 14;5. pii: e19311. 1) equal contribution. PMID: 27740908; DOI: 10.7554/eLife.19311.

2009 - 2015

Baumgardt, M, Karlsson, D, Félix, JT, DíazBenjumea, FJ, Thor, S. (2009). Neuronal sub-type specification within a lineage by opposing temporal feed-forward loops. Cell, 139(5):969-82. PMID: 19945380; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2009.10.032.

Karlsson, D, Baumgardt, M, Thor, S. (2010). Segment-specific neuronal subtype specification by the integration of anteroposterior and temporal cues. PLoS Biology, 8(5):e1000368. PMID: 20485487; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000368.

Benito-Sipos, J, Ulvklo, C, Gabilondo, H, Baumgardt, M, Angel, A, Torroja, L, Thor, S. (2011). Seven up acts as a temporal factor during two different stages of neuroblast 5-6 development. Development, 138(24):5311-5320. PMID: 22071101; DOI: 10.1242/dev.070946.

Ulvklo, C, MacDonald, R, Bivik, C, Baumgardt, M, Karlsson, D, Thor, S. (2012). Control of neuronal cell fate and numbers by integration of distinct daughter cell proliferation modes with temporal progression. Development, 139(4):678-89. PMID: 22241838; DOI: 10.1242/dev.074500.

Losada-Pérez, M, Gabilondo, H, Molina, I, Turiegano, E, Torroja, L, Thor S, Benito-Sipos, J. (2013). Klumpfuss controls FMRFamide expression by enabling BMP signaling within the NB 5-6 lineage. Development, 140(10): 2181-8. PMID: 23633512; DOI: 10.1242/dev.089748.

Baumgardt, M*, Karlsson, D*, Salmani, BY, Bivik, C, MacDonald, R, Gunnar, E, Thor, S. (2014). Global programmed switch in neural daughter cell proliferation mode triggered by a temporal gene cascade. Dev Cell, 30(2):192-208. (*equal contribution). PMID: 25073156; DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2014.06.021.

Bivik, C, Bahrampour, S, Ulvklo, C, Nilsson, P, Angel, A, Fransson, F, Lundin, E, Renhorn, J, Thor, S. (2015). Novel genes involved in controlling specification of Drosophila FMRFamide neuropeptide cells. Genetics, 200(4):1229-44. PMID: 26092715; DOI: 10.1534/genetics.115.178483.

Thor Group - Control of cell fate and proliferation in the developing brain

Professor Stefan Thor

Dr Cecilia Gomez Inclan

Dr Aswathi Gopalakrishnan

Rovan Wei

Amirhossein Sheikhshahrokhdehkordi

Elnaz Saeidi

Wansaja Ranaweera