Research
Brain vasculature system
Our goal is to understand the principles underlying the formation of the brain vasculature system. Brain endothelial cells(ECs) are one of the major components of brain vasculature system and involved in many kinds of brain vasculature diseases, like bAVM, CCM, HHT, IA(Intracranial aneurysm). We are developing and applying cutting edge technologies to interrogate the signal transduction pathways that involved in disease progression.
One the road of hunting new disease target……
Brain metabolic system
Metabolism is physiologically fundamental to a biological system. Understanding brain metabolism is critical for our comprehensive knowledge of brain function in health and disease. In addition, brain is the most heterogeneous organ across whole body, in order to understand the metabolic basis, a detailed spatial metabolome atlas is needed. In our study, we combined a microarray collection system with targeted/untargeted metabolomics analysis and performed precision mapping of the metabolome in the mouse brain, and created maps for 79 metabolites with a resolution of 0.125mm3 per pixel (i.e., brain subregion).
One the road of discovering new metabolic machinery……
Molecular engineering
Synthetic protein structures and functions can now be designed entirely on a computer or produced through directed evolution in the laboratory. AAV capsid engineering is based on protein engineering, genetically encoded ion and metabolite sensors can be developed through protein engineering. We leverage this approach to create a next-generation platform for the study of brain vasculature system and brain metabolic system.
One the road of creating next generation tools……