Professor
School of Medicine and Public Health | Waisman Center | Department of Neuroscience
Hometown: Beijing, China
Professor Xinyu Zhao is a Jenni and Kyle Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and an investigator of the Waisman Center. Dr. Zhao’s research focuses on understanding the gene regulatory mechanisms underlying brain development with the goal of developing novel therapeutic targets for neurodevelopmental disorders such as fragile x syndrome, autism, and Rett syndrome. Professor’s Zhao uses animal models and human pluripotent stem cells and employ CRISPR gene-editing, single-cell and multi-omics, and quantitative fluorescent imaging methods to interrogate the roles of genes, epigenetic regulators, RNAs, and proteins in neurodevelopment. She has been continuously funded by NIH for 20 years and has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts. She has served on many NIH and other grant review committees as well as several task committees that set research priorities in developmental disorders at national levels.
Talks:
Studying autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders using animal and human stem cell models.
Zhao will present the advances and challenges in studying autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. She will discuss why we need both animal models and stem cell models for better understanding and therapeutic development.