Lab Leader: Peng Zhang

Lab Name: Laboratory of Synaptic Regulation

Lab Info：The human brain is made up of billions of neurons, which in turn communicate information with other neurons through trillions of synapses. Synapses are the basic structure of neuronal communication, synaptic plasticity and its precise regulation play an important role in various brain activities, including cognition, perception, decision making and sleep/awake balances. Whereas synaptic abnormalities or disorders are often accompanied by the occurrence of various brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, autism, depression, etc. At present, our research group mainly focuses on the synaptic regulation to understand the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders. Research is carried out mainly from the following three directions:

1) Develop and optimize new tools for brain science research, namely new genetically encoded neurotransmitter fluorescent probes;

2) Explore the regulatory mechanism of synaptic transmission with multi-channel whole-cell patch clamp recording technique;

3) Understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of synaptic regulation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

Lab Members: