Hometown: Fujian, China
Educational Background: Ph.D, University of Southern California, 2013; B.S. Tsinghua University, 2007
2007-2013
How did you get into your field of research?
I was very interested in genetics during college at Tsinghua University, Beijing and found that neurobiology is fascinating during my graduate school at the University of Southern California. So I chose a simple model organism (C. elegans) with powerful genetics to study neurobiology.
What is your area of focus?
I’m broadly interested in figuring out how the brain controls behaviors.
What main issue do you address or problem do you seek to solve in your work?
I currently focus on sleep, one of the most intriguing mysteries in biology. In my lab, we develop and apply interdisciplinary approaches to understand the molecular and circuit mechanisms underlying sleep regulation and function.
What attracted you to UW-Madison?
UW-Madison has many things to offer: great colleagues/students, an outstanding tradition on biology research, and a beautiful town. In particular, there is an outstanding C. elegans research community and experts on sleep research on campus.
What was your first visit to campus like?
It was the 2014 summer for a C. elegans conference: exciting science, awesome colleagues, tasty ice creams, and beautiful trails along Lake Mendota.
What’s one thing you hope students who take a class with you will come away with?
I hope that students in my class not just memorize scientific facts, but more importantly develop critical thinking, as it will be beneficial to learn other knowledge in the future.
How does your work relate to The Wisconsin Idea?
As humans, we spend about 1/3 of life sleeping, but we don’t really understand how sleep works. Sleep disorders are prevalent in modern society. I hope that my work will advance our understanding of the biology of sleep and may facilitate the development of therapeutics for sleep disorders.
What’s something interesting about your area of expertise you can share that will make us sound smarter at parties?
CRISPR/Cas9, a molecular scissor, can cut specific sites of DNA to modify the genome. With this powerful tool, we can disrupt specific genes to understand their functions; we can also correct disease-causing mutations within the genome.
What are you looking forward to doing or experiencing in Madison?
Living in warm California during the past 12 years, I am eager to see how things go during my first winter at Madison. But I’m definitely looking forward to the beautiful summer, and I’m sure that it will be as good, if not better than, my first summer here in 2014.
What course(s) are you teaching this year? Anything in particular you’re looking forward to regarding teaching?
I am going to teach a seminar class regarding sleep, which will be my first class at UW-Madison. I’m excited to discuss with students about the mystery of sleep and current progress on sleep research.
Where do you see your area of integrative biology in the future – in 5, 10, or 25 years?
Sleep is almost universal but complex. Studies of sleep using simple and genetically tractable organisms, including C. elegans, have been useful and will continue to uncover new molecules and neurons important for sleep regulation and function. With the development of new tools and the advent of new model organisms, comparative studies of different animals with new approaches are promising to identify conserved molecule pathways and circuit mechanisms of sleep. In the long run, I expect that we will be able to understand the fundamentals of sleep and explain the core function of sleep.
Hobbies/other interests:
Traveling, hiking, and sports.