There are millions of sequence variants between humans and other species. The Song lab aims to identify and characterize the variants that contributed to human-specific traits, with a particular focus on the evolution of the human brain. In particular, we...
Our lab studies how sensory cues become linked to adaptive or maladaptive responses through learning. Adaptive responses are necessary to develop, survive and thrive; maladaptive responses contribute to disorders across the lifespan. We study this...
Our research explores how we learn from our mistakes—a fundamental building block of intelligent behavior. As infants learning to walk, we take unsteady steps, fall, adjust, and eventually develop stable locomotion. This iterative cycle of action, error...
We are broadly interested in molecular programs that shape cognition and behavior. Our current work centers on circulating factors (i.e. hormones)— produced by peripheral organs, influenced by environment and somatic state, and readily measured in human...
The human brain is a mosaic structure with significant genetic diversity arising from post-zygotic (i.e., somatic) genetic variation. The overarching mission of our lab is to examine how this somatic variation contributes to both typical and pathological...
Our lab studies the molecular and cellular basis of novel organismic physiology and behavior. We emphasize curiosity-driven science and exploration, using comparative approaches featuring a range of unusual and specialized organisms that are uniquely...
The Gu Lab focuses on elucidating how cells regulate proteasomal degradation independently of ubiquitination. We discovered a non-canonical proteolysis mechanism, the midnolin-proteasome pathway, that bypasses ubiquitination to selectively degrade...
The brain-CSF interface: Neural stem cells and disease
Defined numbers of neural precursor cells are remarkably synchronized in their task to form the brain, yet no central command coordinating this process has been identified. Neural precursors divide...
The brain allows animals to successfully interact with a natural world that is rich with opportunity and rife with danger. These interactions are mediated by sensation and movement, which are used by animals to learn about their environment and to make...