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Faculty Detail Faculty Entry   
Name CHENBEI CHANG  
Campus Address MCLM 360 Zip 0005
Phone 205-975-7229
E-mail cchang@uab.edu" id="FacultyDetail1EmailAddress"><a href="mailto:cchang@uab.edu">cchang@uab.edu</a>
URL
 
 

Department Affiliations(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Center  Center for Aging  Center for Aging Associate Professor
Center  Center for Metabolic Bone Disease  Center for Metabolic Bone Disease Associate Professor
Center  Civitan International Research Center  Civitan International Research Center Associate Professor
Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center Associate Professor
Primary  Cell, Developmntl, & Integrative Biology  Cell, Developmntl, & Integrative Biology Associate Professor

Biographical Sketch 
Dr. Chenbei Chang received her bachelor degree in Biology major from University of Science and Technology of China. She then conducted her Ph. D. research under the guidance of Dr. Jay Gralla in University of California at Los Angeles, working on mechanisms of eukaryotic transcription regulation. After obtaining her Ph. D. degree in 1994, she went to the Rockefeller University and became a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Ali H. Brivanlou. She investigated the functions of various signaling pathways during early vertebrate development. In 1998, she was promoted to Research Associate. She came to UAB as an Assistant Professor in 2001 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2007. Her current work focuses on the roles of growth factor signals and transcription factors in early vertebrate embryogenesis, using Xenopus laevis as the model system.

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
American Association for the Advancement of Science     
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology     
Chinese Biological Investigators society     
Society for Developmental Biology     
 

Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Growth Factor Signaling and Transcription Regulation in Vertebrate Development
Description
The research in Dr. Chang’s laboratory is focused on control of early vertebrate development by different growth factor signals. The model system used in the lab is the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis. The following research projects are currently ongoing in the lab. 1) Regulation of neural induction and patterning by TGF&#61538;, FGF and Wnt signals. TGF&#61538; (transformation growth factor beta) signals can be divided into two branches, those of TGF&#61538;/Activin/Nodal and BMPs. We recently showed that both branches play important roles in inhibition of neural induction. Suppression of both Nodal and BMP signals is required for early neural development. The downstream nuclear factors that mediate TGF&#61538; signals in neural formation have not been illustrated in detail, and the interplay between TGF&#61538; and other signals, include those of FGF and Wnt, is not well understood. These issues will be further investigated in the lab. 2) Regulation of cell movements and morphogenesis by ErbB signaling pathway. During vertebrate development, cells undergo extensive rearrangement and movements to form proper tissue architecture. One major early cell movement event is gastrulation, in which mesoderm and endoderm move inside the embryos. We recently showed that ErbB signaling modulates cell movements during gastrulation. ErbBs seem to regulate cell adhesion to affect cell behaviors. The detailed mechanisms on how ErbB signaling affects cadherin-mediated of cell adhesion and regulates actin cytoskeleton reorganization will be studied in the lab. The cytoplasmic factors involved in mediating the effect of ErbB signaling on cell movements are also being investigated.

Postdoc Positions Available
Date Posted Position Title
No records
 

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Burn, B., Brown, S. and Chang, C. (2011) Regulation of early Xenopus development by the PIAS genes. Dev. Dyn., in press   
Joo, H. Y., Jones, A., Yang, C., Zhai, L., Smith IV, A. D., Zhang, Z., Chandrasekharan, M., Renfrow, M., Sun, Z., Wang, Y., Chang, C. and Wang, H. (2011) Regulation of Xenopus development by a putative histone H2A and H2B deubiquitinase USP12. J. Biol. Chem. 286, 7190-7201.   
Dai, F., Lin, X., Chang, C. and Feng, X. H. (2009) Nuclear export of Smad2 and Smad3 by RanBP3. Dev. Cell 16, 345-357.   
Yan, C. Y. I., Skourides, P., Chang, C. and Brivanlou, A. (2009) Samba, a Xenopus hnRNP expressed in neural and neural crest tissues. Dev. Dyn. 238, 204-209.   
Chang, C. (2008) Agonists and antagonists of TGF&#61538; family ligands. In “The TGF-&#61538; family” (R. Derynck and K. Miyazono, eds.), pp. 203-257. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.    
Wan, M., Yang, C., Li, J., Wu, X., Yuan, H., Ma, H., He, X., Nie, S., Chang, C. and Cao, X. (2008) Parathyroid hormone signaling through low-density-lipoprotein-related protein 6. Genes & Dev. 22, 2968-2979.   
Joo, H. Y., Zhai, L., Yang, C., Nie, S., Erdjument-Bromage, H., Tempst, P., Chang, C. and Wang, H. (2007) Regulation of cell cycle progression and gene expression by H2A deubiquitination. Nature 449, 1068-1072.   
Chang, C. and Harland, R. M. (2007) Neural induction requires continued suppression of both Smad1 and Smad2 signals during gastrulation. Development 134, 3861-3872.    
Nie, S. and Chang, C. (2007) PI3K and Erk MAPK mediate ErbB signaling in Xenopus gastrulation. Mech. Dev. 124, 657-667.   
Dai, F., Chang, C., Lin, X., Dai, P., Mei, L. and Feng, X. H. (2007) Erbin inhibits TGF&#61538; signaling through a novel Smad-interacting domain. Mol. Cell. Biol. 27, 6183-6194.   
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Keywords
TGF-beta, neural induction, BMP, ErbB, gastrulation, cell movement

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