The plasticity of neuronal cells and neural circuits not only underlies the brain’s remarkable ability to learn through experience, but also plays a key role in the development of many adaptive behaviors and psychiatric diseases (such as addiction, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder). Research in our lab aims to understand how experience regulates neuronal activity under both normal and pathophysiological conditions, with a focus on the plasticity of glutamatergic synapses. To accomplish this goal we use a combinatorial electrophysiological, imaging, molecular and cell biology approaches to examine functional alterations induced by experience in various preparations including acutely isolated brain slices, cultured brain slices and intact animal brains.

 

EDUCATION

2002 Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley (Neuroscience) 1996 B.A., Beijing University, (Biochemistry and molecular biology)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2008-present Investigator and head of Laboratory of Neural Circuit and Behavioral Plasticity , Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 2004-2008 Postdoc, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA 2003-2004 Postdoc Research Associate, Virginia University, USA 1996-1997 Postgraduate researcher, University of California San Francisco, USA