Title: Neural Circuit Mechanisms of Social Behavior
Speaker: Dr. Weizhe Hong, Assistant Professor, UCLA
Time: 13:00-14:30, July 11, 2019
Location: Third Floor Lobby, Lui Che Woo Building, Peking University
Abstract:
We live in a world that is largely socially constructed, and we are constantly involved in and fundamentally influenced by a broad array of complex social interactions. Social behaviors among conspecifics, either conflictive or cooperative, are exhibited by all sexually reproducing animal species and are essential for the health, survival, and reproduction of animals. Conversely, impairment in social function is a prominent feature of several neuropsychiatric disorders. We study the neural mechanism of social behavior across molecular, circuit, and behavioral levels, and we take a multi-disciplinary approach by utilizing a wide variety of experimental and computational techniques.
Brief biography: Dr. Hong is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Neurobiology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (since 2016). Starting from the first year in high school, he worked with Prof. Zengyi Chang, on biochemical mechanisms underlying protein folding and aggregation, first at Tsinghua University (2000-2004) and then at Peking University (2004-2006). He also worked at the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing for one year during 2005-2006. Dr. Hong received a B.S. degree in biology in 2006 at Tsinghua University. Dr. Hong received his PhD degree in 2012 at Stanford University, working with his advisor Prof. Liqun Luo on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of wiring specificity during olfactory system development. He was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology during 2012-2015, working with his advisor Prof. David Anderson on neural mechanisms underlying social and emotional behaviors. Dr. Hong has received numerous awards, including Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, McKnight Scholar, Searle Scholar, Sloan Research Fellowship, Category Winner of Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists, Larry Sandler Memorial Award, and Larry Katz Memorial Lecture.
Host: Dr. Yulong Li