Our Team

Members

Chechneva-photo

Olga Chechneva

Investigator
Shriners Hospital for Children
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
University of California, Davis
2425 Stockton Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95817
(916) 453-2250
ochechneva (at) ucdavis.edu

Education

  • Master in Pharmacy – Saint-Petersburg Chemical Pharmaceutical Academy, Russia
  • Ph.D. in Neurobiology – Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany
  • Post-Doc, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine / Physiology and Membrane Biology, University of California, Davis

Research Interests

Glia – neuron and glia-glia interactions in brain development and brain function. Glial cell therapy of cerebral palsy, autoimmune demyelination and Alzheimer’s disease.

Current Research

My research is focused on understanding glial cell function in neurodevelopment, aging and disease.

We recently found that neurons accumulate ribosomal and nuclear material of oligodendrocyte (OL) origin during postnatal development and in the healthy adult mouse central nervous system (CNS). We investigate the mechanism and the role of OL-to-neuron material transfer in behavior and neurological disorders, specifically in cerebral palsy, a common cause of cognitive and motor disability in children.

Hippocampus
Postnatal propagation of oligodendrocyte-derived Rpl10a-EGFP in neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. P, postnatal day. Scale bar 500 µm.
Two-nuclei
Super resolution imaging showing internuclear contact between satellite oligodendrocyte (magenta) and neuronal Sun1-sfGFP+ nuclear membranes in the adult cortex. Scale bar 5 µm.

Our studies also focus on therapeutic targeting and genetic manipulation of glial cells to control autoimmune demyelination. We recently found that CNS parenchymal infiltration is associated with reduction in CD11c+ microglia. We are investigating the role of CD11c+ microglia to control CNS immune cell infiltration during autoimmune demyelination and therapeutic targeting astrocyte-microglia interaction for maintaining blood-brain barrier integrity.

CD11c+ microglia (green) contacting astrocyte glia

limitans (white) at the blood-brain barrier in the mouse

spinal cord white matter. Scale bar 10 µm.

MG-astrocyte-BBB