{"id":9670,"date":"2024-08-13T18:38:29","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T22:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/?post_type=ud_entry&#038;p=9670"},"modified":"2024-08-13T18:38:29","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T22:38:29","slug":"jiakun-chen-phd","status":"publish","type":"ud_entry","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/people\/jiakun-chen-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Jiakun Chen, PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"faculty-training\">\n<li style=\"line-height: 1.1; font-size: small; color: #333;\">Mentorship Training Completions:<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ogefacultymentoring.web.unc.edu\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1391\/2024\/03\/Faculty-OGE-Trained-mentor-badge.svg\" alt=\"OGE Mentoring Workshop Badge\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9189\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"department-affiliations\">\n<li style=\"line-height: 1.1; font-size: small; color: #333;\">Department Affiliations:<\/li>\n<li style=\"\">Department of Biology<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"other-programs\">\n<li style=\"line-height: 1.1; font-size: small; color: #333;\">Other UNC PhD Program Affiliations:<\/li>\n<li style=\"\">CBP; Neuroscience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Astrocytes are a specialized glial cell type that is integral to brain circuits and exert profound effects on human health, therefore astrocyte dysfunction has been implicated as a hallmark of many neurological disorders. The goal of our lab is to understand the fundamental mechanisms of how astrocytes contribute to nervous system formation and function. By harnessing a powerful combination of molecular-genetic approaches and live-imaging techniques in fruit flies and zebrafish model systems, we explore the molecular, cellular and genetic mechanisms governing the development and function of astrocytes, and how they modulate neural circuits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>Projects<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Molecular mechanisms of astrocyte morphogenesis.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Astrocyte plasticity in development and aging.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>How do astrocytes modulate neural circuits?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"ud_division":[37],"faculty-mentorship-training":[43],"class_list":["post-9670","ud_entry","type-ud_entry","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ud_division-faculty","faculty-mentorship-training-oge-mentoring-workshop","odd"],"acf":[],"ud_entry_custom_fields":{"ud_last_name":"Chen","ud_first_name":"Jiakun","ud_gallery_summary":"","ud_telephone":[{"ud_location":"Office","ud_number":"9199627289"}],"ud_email":"chenjk@unc.edu","ud_positions":[{"ud_title":"Assistant Professor"}],"ud_options":[],"ud_sort_order":""},"featured_image":false,"featured_image_medium":false,"featured_image_medium_large":false,"featured_image_large":false,"featured_image_thumbnail":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_entry\/9670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_entry"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ud_entry"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ud_division","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_division?post=9670"},{"taxonomy":"faculty-mentorship-training","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-mentorship-training?post=9670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}