Lab Leader: Nan-jie Xu

Lab Name: Laboratory of Neural Development and Brain Dysfunction

Lab Info：Our laboratory focus on receptor signaling in neuronal connections and synaptic formation, and the pathogenesis of neurological disorders.

1. Adult neural stem cell development and neural function

Neural stem cells/progenitor cells and neural progenitor cells play a key role in the maintenance and renewal of neural circuits. Our works aim to interpret receptor signals in adult neural stem cells, and elucidate the regulatory effect of environmental stimuli on the fate of neural stem cell.

2. Formation and function of neural circuits

Our study is to clarify how long-distance neural circuits integrate external signals into cognitive and emotional nuclei in the brain and how these nuclei communicate to modulate higher neural activities such as emotion, reward, social behavior, learning and memory.

3. Molecular and cellular mechanisms for mental disorders

By using the models of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, we investigate the key roles of Eph/ephrin receptors mediated signals, which could reveal the neural and molecular mechanisms of brain diseases.

Lab Members: