Publications

Equal Contribution* Corresponding#

Neuronal maturation in development and disease

***First preprint from the lab*** : Yijia Chen*, Hsuan-Ming Chi*, Aileen Tian*, Alison Miller, Tulsi Patel#. From Wiring to Firing: Collapse of embryonic identities and emergence of functional diversity during motor neuron maturation. bioRxiv 2025.08.12.669897; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.12.669897 Link

Emily R. Lowry & Tulsi Patel. Turning back the clock on age-related neurodegeneration. Nature Neuroscience (2025).Research Briefing Link PDF

Emily R. Lowry*, Tulsi Patel*, Jonathon A. Costa, Elizabeth Chang, Shahroz Tariq, Hranush Melikyan, Ian M. Davis, Siaresh Aziz, Georgia Dermentzaki, Francesco Lotti, Hynek Wichterle. Embryonic motor neuron programming factors reactivate immature gene expression and suppress ALS pathologies in postnatal motor neurons. Nature Neuroscience (2025).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-02033-x. Link PDF

Patel, T.#, Hammelman, J., Aziz, S., Jang, S., Closser, M., Michaels, T., Blum, J., Gifford, D. K., Wichterle, H#. Transcriptional dynamics of murine motor neuron maturation in vivo and in vitro. Nature Communications. 13, 5427 (2022). Link

Patel, T., Hobert, O. Coordinated control of terminal differentiation and restriction of cellular plasticity. eLife. 6:e24100 (2017). Link

Tools for analyzing genomic data

Hammelman, J., Patel, T., Closser, M., Wichterle, H., Gifford, D. K. Ranking reprogramming factors for cell differentiation. Nature Methods. 19(7):812-822 (2022). Link

Reprogramming cell identity

Closser, M., Guo, Y., Wan, P., Patel, T., Jang, S., Hammelman, J., De Nooij, J., Kopunova, R., Mazzoni, E., Ruan, Y., Gifford, D., Wichterle, H. An expansion of genomic regulatory complexity underlies vertebrate neuronal diversity. Neuron. 110(1):70-85.e6 (2022). Link

Mazzoni, E.O.*, Mahony, S.*, Peljto, M.*, Patel, T., Thornton, S.R., McCuine, S., Reeder, C., Boyer, L.A., Young, R.A., Gifford, D.K., et al. Saltatory remodeling of Hox chromatin in response to rostrocaudal patterning signals. Nature Neuroscience. 16, 1191-1198 (2013). Link

Specification of neuronal identity

Patel, T.*, Tursun, B.*, Rahe, D.P., and Hobert, O. Removal of Polycomb repressive complex 2 makes C. elegans germ cells susceptible to direct conversion into specific somatic cell types. Cell Reports. 2, 1178-1186 (2012). Link

Tursun, B., Patel, T., Kratsios, P., and Hobert, O. Direct conversion of C. elegans germ cells into specific neuron types. Science. 331, 304-308 (2011). Link