Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Research Publications:

Cho C., Smallwood P.M., and Nathans J. (2017) Reck and Gpr124 Are Essential Receptor Cofactors for Wnt7a/Wnt7b-Specific Signaling in Mammalian CNS Angiogenesis and Blood-Brain Barrier Regulation. Neuron 95: 1056-1073.

Sabbagh, M.F., Heng, J.S., Luo, C., Castanon, R.G., Nery, J.R., Rattner, A., Goff, L.A., Ecker, J.R., and Nathans, J. (2018) Transcriptional and epigenomic landscapes of CNS and non-CNS vascular endothelial cells. eLife 7: e36187.

Wang, Y., Cho, C., Williams, J., Smallwood, P.M., Zhang, C., Junge, H.J., and Nathans, J. (2018) Interplay of the Norrin and Wnt7a/Wnt7b signaling systems in blood-brain barrier and blood-retina barrier development and maintenance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 15: E11827-E11836.

Wang, Y., Sabbagh, M.F., Gu, X., Rattner, A., Williams, J., and Nathans, J. (2019) Beta-catenin signaling regulates barrier-specific gene expression in circumventricular organ and ocular vasculatures. eLife 8: e43257.

Heng, J.S., Rattner, A., Stein-O’Brien, G.L., Winer, B.L., Jones, B.W., Vernon, H.J., Goff, L.A., and Nathans, J. (2019) Hypoxia tolerance in the Norrin-deficient retina and the chronically hypoxic brain studied at single-cell resolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 116: 9103-9114.

Cho, C., Wang, Y., Smallwood, P.M., Williams, J., and Nathans, J. (2019) Molecular determinants in Frizzled, Reck, and Wnt7a for ligand-specific signaling in neurovascular development. eLife 8: e47300.

Rattner, A., Williams, J., and Nathans J. (2019) Roles of HIFs and VEGF in angiogenesis in the retina and brain. Journal of Clinical Investigation 130: 3807-3820.

Heng, J.S., Hackett, S.F., Wang, Y., Stein-O’Brien, G.L., Winer, B.L., Williams, J., Goff, L.A. and Nathans, J. (2019) Comprehensive analysis of a mouse model of spontaneous uveoretinitis using single-cell RNA sequencing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 116: 26734-26744.

Rattner, A., Terrillion, C.E., Jou, C., Kleven, T., Hu, S.F., Williams, J., Hou, Z., Aggarwal, M., Mori, S., Shin, G., Goff, L.A., Witter, M.P., Pletnikov, M., Fenton, A.A., and Nathans, J. (2020) Developmental, cellular, and behavioral phenotypes in a mouse model of congenital hypoplasia of the dentate gyrus. eLife 9: e62766. 

Wang, J., Rattner, A., and Nathans, J. (2021) A transcriptome atlas of the mouse iris at single-cell resolution defines cell types and the genomic response to pupil dilation. eLife. 10: e73477.

Chang, T.-H., Hsieh, F.-L., Gu, X., Smallwood, P.M., Kavran, J., Gabelli, S., and Nathans, J. (2023) Biochemical and structural insights into Plasmalemma Vesicle-Associated Protein (PLVAP): implications for vascular endothelial diaphragms and fenestrae. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 120: e2221103120.

Wang, J., Rattner, A. and Nathans, J. (2023) Bacterial meningitis in the early postnatal mouse studied at single-cell resolution. eLife 12: e86130.

Rattner, A., Heng, J., Winer, B.L., Goff, L.A., and Nathans, J. (2023) Normal and Sjogren’s syndrome models of the murine lacrimal gland studied at single-cell resolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 120:e2311983120.

Wang, Y., Rattner, A., Li, Z., Smallwood P.M., and Nathans J. (2025) Vascular endothelial-specific loss of TGF-beta signaling as a model for choroidal neovascularization and central nervous system vascular inflammation. eLife 14:RP107018.

Li, Z., Rattner, A., Wang, Y., Smallwood, P.M., Sabbagh, M., Mannion, B.J., Pennacchio, L.A., and Nathans, J. (2026) Enhancers that direct gene expression to central nervous system vascular endothelial cells in vivo. Neuron 114: 1736-1750.