Yuan Wang
Interest
The Yuan Wang Lab investigates the formation, dynamics, and pathology of the binaural circuit in the auditory brainstem. This circuit encodes acoustic information essential for sound and speech recognition in noisy environments, a common target across neurological disorders. They focus on the roles of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), which is responsible for the fragile X syndrome.
Current Research
The lab has four current research lines: 1) FMRP functional characterization in neuronal and circuit development in chickens using genetic manipulations; 2) FMRP function in neuronal dynamics regulated by excitatory input from the ears in mice and chickens; 3) Development of a transgenic gerbil model of fragile X syndrome for behavior studies; 4) Anatomical and biochemical studies of postmortem human brain tissues from individuals with autism and other neurological disorders.