Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Research Interests
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD) are the most common neurodegenerative diseases and affect millions of people worldwide. Currently the molecular mechanism of disease pathogenesis remains unclear and there are no therapies can prevent, slow, or halt disease progression. The focus of our lab is on dissecting the molecular mechanism of neurodegeneration through multiple integrated approaches including single nucleus RNA-seq (snRNA-seq), network analysis, genomics, epigenomics and machine learning. Our long-term goal is to provide novel insights into the mechanism of disease pathogenesis and new targets for disease prevention and drug development. Areas of current interest include: 1) Dissect cellular and transcriptomic changes in AD and PD human brains using single nucleus RNA-seq; 2) Understand the relationship between neuroinflammation and selective neuronal death; 3) Computational tool development for single cell ligand-receptor signaling network analysis, transcriptional regulatory network analysis and their application on AD and PD snRNA-seq data. 4) Transcription regulation and AD and PD disease pathogenesis.
Professional Education
- BSc: 1995, Environmental Biology, Peking University, P. R. China
- MS: 1998 Molecular Cell Biology, Peking University, P. R. China
- PhD: 2003, Molecular Cell Biology, Washington University School of Medicine
- Postdoctoral Fellow: 2007 , Washington University School of Medicine
Affiliations
- Neuroscience
- Biology and Biomedical Sciences
- Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences
Zhao Lab
The Zhao lab is interested in dissecting the molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration through multiple integrated approaches including single nucleus RNA-seq (snRNA-seq), network analysis, genomics, epigenomics and machine learning.
PI: Guoyan Zhao, PhD