Wiring Specificity of Neural Circuits
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Liqun Luo, Ph.D.
Ann and Bill Swindell Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences; Professor of Neurobiology; HHMI Investigator
Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Luo grew up in Shanghai, China, and earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Science & Technology of China. After receiving his PhD at Brandeis University and postdoctoral training at UCSF, Dr. Luo started his own lab at Stanford University in 1996. Together with his postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, Dr. Luo studies the development and function of neural circuits in fruit flies and mice.
Dr. Luo is currently the Ann and Bill Swindells Professor of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Biology, and Professor of Neurobiology by courtesy, all at Stanford University. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He teaches neurobiology to undergraduate and graduate students.
His single-author textbook “Principles of Neurobiology” (1st edition 2015, 2nd edition 2020; Garland Science/CRC Press) is widely used for undergraduate and graduate courses across the world.
Dr. Luo is a recipient McKnight Technological Innovation in Neuroscience Award, the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, the Jacob Javits Award from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, HW Mossman Award from American Association of Anatomists, the Lawrence Katz Prize from Duke University, the Pradel Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences, and the Society for Neuroscience Award for Education in Neuroscience. Dr. Luo is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Summary
Developing brains use a limited number of molecules to specify connection specificity of a much larger number of neurons and synapses. How is this feat achieved? I will first describe our work using the Drosophila olfactory circuit as a model to address this question. I will then discuss functions of homologs of wiring molecules we identified in the fly olfactory circuits in determining wiring specificity of the mouse hippocampal and other circuits.
Objectives:
*To appreciate the importance of wiring specificity in neural circuit function
*To learn how a combination of genetic analyses, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches can be used to identify key molecules in regulating wiring specificity
*To understand how evolutionarily conserved molecules can help determining wiring specificity of diverse neural circuits
This page was last updated on Friday, April 21, 2023