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I
was born in Apr, 1978 in Zhangjiagang (张家港市), a small town sits beside the Yangtze River in the east of China. During my childhood, I was interested in almost everything, drawing, literature, history, fishing and some sports. But it seems that I never developed any neuron for music.
I
studied in Shazhou
Middle School (1993-1996) before I went to the University
of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1996. After 4
years of course study in School
of Life Science at USTC, I joined Dr Xu
Zhang's Lab in Institute
of Neuroscience (ION) to do my undergraduate thesis, and participated in the study of delta-opioid receptor mediated neuropeptide secretion. In 2001, I did my thesis defense and
obtained my Bachelor of Science Degree from USTC. During those years in college and the year in ION, I found my direction in research, especially in neuroscience. Not only because reseach is interesting and challenging but also because it makes me feel useful to our society. And I believe my work will add new knowledge and improve our health some day.
Therefore, in the fall of 2001, I
began my Ph.D. study at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics
in University
of Southern California (USC), and I joined Dr.
Robert H Chow's lab to study the presynaptic mechanism of synaptic transmission, focusing on identifying the role of a small protein called complexin. With this work, I got my Ph.D. in 2007.
After years of study, I confirmed my interest in neuroscience research but I also realized that to understand human mind, it is necessary to study nervous system at another level: the neural circuits. So I joined Dr. David Anderson's lab in Caltech as a postdoc to study how neural circuits control behavior in 2008. You can find more information about my research here. |