Group leader: 

Siddharthan Chandran

Contact: 

siddharthan [dot] chandran [at] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk

Prof Chandran is a clinical neurologist with a particular interest in why nerves die in diseases such as MND, Parkinson's and MS and how we might develop treatments to slow, stop or reverse this process. He combines his clinical activity with basic laboratory research on human stem cells. Stem cells represent an opportunity to both study and learn about disease as well as potentially develop new drugs and treatments.

Prof Chandran is also director of the Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research.

Selected publications

• Gupta K, Patania R, Baxter P, Serio A, Story D, Tsujita T, Hayes JD,
  Pedersen RA, Hardingham GE, Chandran S. In press. Human embryonic stem cell
  derived astrocytes mediate non-cell autonomous neuroprotection through
  endogenous and drug-induced mechanisms. Cell Death and Differentiation.
• Bak TH and Chandran S. In press. What wires together dies together: verbs,
  actions and neurodegeneration in motor neuron disease. Cortex.
• Stacpoole SRL, Bilican B, Webber DJ, Luzhynskaya A, He XL, Compston A, Karadottir R, Franklin RJM & Chandran S. In press. Efficient derivation
  of neural precursor cells, spinal motor neurons and midbrain dopaminergic
  neurons from human ES cells at 3% oxygen. Nature Protocols.
• Ruzov A, Tsenkina Y, Serio A, Dudnakova T, Fletcher J, Bai Y, Chebotareva T, Pells S, Hannoun Z, Sullivan G, Chandran S, Hay D, Bradley M, Wilmut I, De
  Sousa P. 2011. Lineage-specific distribution of high levels of genomic 5-
  hydroxymethylcytosine in mammalian development. Cell Research 1-11.
• Tan CL, Kwok JC, Patani R, Ffrench-Constant C, Chandran S, Fawcett JW. 2011.
  Integrin activation promotes axon growth on inhibitory chondroitin sulfate
  proteoglycans by enhancing integrin signalling. Journal of Neuroscience 31:6289-
  95.
• Patani R, Hollins A, Wishart T, Puddifoot C, Álvarez S, De Lera A, Wyllie D,
  Compston A, Pedersen R, Gillingwater T, Hardingham G, Allen N, Chandran S. 2011. Retinoid-independent generation of motor neurons from human
  embryonic stem cells reveals a medial columnar ground state. Nature
  Communications 12:62.
• Stacpoole SRL, Billican B, Webber DJ, Luzhynskaya A, He XL, Compston A,
  Karadottir R, Franklin RJM, Chandran S. 2011. Derivation of neural precursor
  cells from human ES cells at 3% O2 is efficient, enhances survival and
  presents no barrier to regional specification and finctional differentiation.
  Cell Death and Differentiation 18: 1016-1023.
• Tollervey JR, Curk T, Rogelj B, Briese M, Cereda M, Kayikci M, König J,
  Hortobágyi T, Nishimura AL, Zupunski V, Patani R, Chandran S, Rot G,
  Zupan B, Shaw CE, Ule J. 2011. Characterizing the RNA targets and positiondependent splicing regulation by TDP-43. Nature Neuroscience 14:452-8.
• Cordero-Llana O, Scott SA, Maslen SL, Anderson JM, Boyle J, Chowhdury
  RR, Tyers P, Barker RA, Kelly CM, Rosser AE, Stephens E, Chandran S,
  Caldwell MA. 20111. Clusterin from astrocytes enhances neuronal differentiation
  from human neural precursors. Cell Death and Differentiation 18: 907-13.
• Bell KF, Al-Mubarak B, Fowler JH, Baxter PS, Gupta K, Tsujita T, Chowdhry
  S, Patani R, Chandran S, Horsburgh K, Hayes JD, Hardingham GE. 2011. Mild
  oxidative stress activates Nrf2 in astrocytes, which contributes to
  neuroprotective ischemic preconditioning. PNAS 108:E1-2.
• Iovino M, Patani R, Watts C, Chandran S, Spillantini MS. 2010. Human stem
  cell-derived neurons: a system to study human tau function and
  dysfunction. PLoS One 5(11):e13947.
• Hampton DW, Webber DJ, Bilican B, Goedert M Spillantini MG, Chandran
  S. 2010. Cell-mediated neuroprotection in a mouse model of human tauopathy. Journal of Neuroscience 30:9973-83.