The strong desire to understand brain development and disorders drives the research in the Zheng laboratory at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
We currently study the cell biology of:
Axon development and brain wring,
Synapse formation and plasticity,
Brain injury and degeneration.
Axon development and brain wiring. Directed cell motility is fundamental for many developmental events including neural development,
and it underlies many pathological events such as cancer-cell metastasis. We investigate directed cell motility in nerve cells, aiming to understand how developing axons
extend and navigate to reach their specific target cells to form synaptic connections. We focus on the spatiotemporal signaling and cytoskeletal events that enable the motile tip
of developing axons, the growth cone, to respond to environmental cues to reach their specific targets.
Synapse formation and plasticity. Synapses represent the basic unit of neuronal communications and are composed of paired pre- and post-synaptic terminals.
Synapses are plastic and undergo short- and long-term modifications during development, as well as during learning and memory. We investigate the cytoskeletal regulation of
synaptic structure, function, modification, and disruption.
Brain injury and neurodegeneration. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD),
and Frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTD), involve progressive disruption of brain function and subsequent neuronal loss that are more prevalent in aged populations. Physical insults
to the head, even those mild ones, can set in motion latent pathologic processes that later emerge to cause neurodegenerative conditions. We use a novel Drosophila
mild head injury model to investigate how early exposure to mild head trauma can lead to long-term deficits and brain degeneration. This research program employes innovative approaches,
inclding AI-empowered quantitative analyses, to gain mechanistic understanding of age-dependent neurodegeneration.
Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts - Richard Feyman.
Dr. Myers is an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology, Emory University. He is a major collaborator of our research team. Click the button below to go to his faculty profile page.
Sherry is a graduate student in Emory Neuroscience Program. She investigates the sex- and age-dependent late-life emergence of neurodegeneration after mild head trauma in Drosophila.
Kate is a graduate student in Emory Biochemistry, Cell & Developmental Biology Graduate Program. She currently investigates the actin bundling protein Fascin in brain development.
Shuristeen is a graduate student in Emory Biochemistry, Cell & Developmental Biology Graduate Program. She currently investigates the actin mechanism underlying synapse development.
We are seeking a postdoc to join us at Emory in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia to study the actin cell biology underlying the postsynaptic structure and function. Background in neuroscience and/or cell biology is required.
Experience in imaging, cytoskeleton, and stereotactic viral injection is a plus.
A lab technician/research specialist position is available for molecualr cloning and biochemical studies of protein-protein interaction in neurons.
We are open for graduate student rotation and undergraduate research.
If interested, please send curriculum vitae to Dr. James Zheng