Dongeun Heo
Neuron-Glia Interactions in the Developing Central Nervous System
Research Interests:
Nervous system development is both incredibly complex and fascinating. How does an organ as intricate as the brain assemble and mature? What are the cells and molecules essential to this developmental process? And how can insights from normal nervous system development help us further understand and treat neurological disorders?
The Heo Lab focuses on glial cells, the non-neuronal, supporting cells of the nervous system, that are absolutely essential for proper nervous system development and function. Dysfunction in glial cell development has been linked to diverse neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. We seek to understand how glial cells in the central nervous system acquire their complex morphologies and specialized functions. To tackle this problem, we harness the power of genetics, performing high-throughput genetic screens in fruit flies (Drosophila) and zebrafish. We are especially excited to uncover how neurons send molecular and cellular cues that guide the development of glial cells.
To comprehensively map all the cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic cues that glia use during development, we perform genetic screens in fruit flies. Fruit flies are a powerful model organism for this purpose, offering sophisticated genetic toolkits and a short life cycle; within a week, you can see the results of your genetic manipulations. In parallel, we use larval zebrafish to directly observe glial cells as they specify and mature within an intact, living animal. Zebrafish harbor all the major mammalian glial cell types—astrocytes, oligodendrocyte lineage cells, and microglia—making them an ideal system for investigating conserved mechanisms of glial cell development at the molecular and cellular level.
Together, our long-term goal is to elucidate how glial cell dysfunction contributes to neurodevelopmental disorders by defining the mechanisms of healthy glial cell development.
We are also working to improve existing genetic tools and build new ones to expand the toolkit available for zebrafish research. Our lab strives to push the limits of zebrafish genetics, aiming to bring the speed of fruit fly genetics into a vertebrate model system where nervous system development can be directly visualized in an intact organism.
Biography:
- Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, IN, 2027
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Vollum Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, OR, 2021-2027
Education:
- Ph.D., Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, MD, 2015-2021
- B.S., Neurobiology, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 2011-2015
Recent Papers:
- Heo, D., Call, C. L., Chen, J., Freeman, M. R., & Monk, K. R. (2026). All-in-one, Cas13d-based cell-specific gene knockdown system for zebrafish. bioRxiv, 2026.04.23.720501. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.23.720501
- Heo, D., Kim, A. A., Neumann, B., Doze, V. N., Xu, Y. K. T., Mironova, Y. A., Slosberg, J., Goff, L. A., Franklin, R. J. M., & Bergles, D. E. (2025). Transcriptional profiles of mouse oligodendrocyte precursor cells across the lifespan. Nature Aging, 5(4), 675–690. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-025-00840-2
- Heo, D., Ling, J. P., Molina-Castro, G. C., Langseth, A. J., Waisman, A., Nave, K. A., Möbius, W., Wong, P. C., & Bergles, D. E. (2022). Stage-specific control of oligodendrocyte survival and morphogenesis by TDP-43. eLife, 11, e75230. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75230
Research Specialties:
- Neurodevelopment
- Glial cell biology
- Neuron-glia interactions
- Drosophila genetics
- Zebrafish tool development
- Genetic screens