Committee

Yulong Li

E-mail : yulongli@pku.edu.cn

Job title :
Investigator

Office Address : No. 5 Summer Palace Road, Haidian District, Beijing, Wang Kezhen Floor, 100871

Laboratory home page : http://www.yulonglilab.org/group_cn.html

EDUCATION EXPERIENCE

2000-2006 Ph.D., Dept. of Neurobiology, Duke University .
1996-2000 BS, School of life sciences, Peking University.

WORK EXPERIENCE

2012.11- Principal Investigator, School of Life Sciences, Peking University. Member of PKU-THU Center for Life Sciences.
2006-2012 Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University,.

RESEARCH DESCRIPTION

2012.11- Principal Investigator, School of Life Sciences, Peking University. Member of PKU-THU Center for Life Sciences.
2006-2012 Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University,.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

1. Jing, M., Zhang, P., Wang, G., Feng, J, Mesik, L., Zeng, J., ... & Li, Y. (2018). A genetically-encoded fluorescent acetylcholine indicator. Accepted.
2. Shen, Y., Ge, W. P., Li, Y., Hirano, A., Lee, H. Y., Rohlmann, A., ... & Ptacek, L. J. (2015). Protein mutated in paroxysmal dyskinesia interacts with the active zone protein RIM and suppresses synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(10), 2935-2941.
3. Liang, L., Li, Y., Potter, C. J., Yizhar, O., Deisseroth, K., Tsien, R. W., & Luo, L. (2013). GABAergic Projection Neurons Route Selective Olfactory Inputs to Specific Higher-Order Neurons. Neuron, 79(5), 917-931.
4. Li, Y., & Tsien, R. W. (2012). pHTomato, a red, genetically encoded indicator that enables multiplex interrogation of synaptic activity. Nature neuroscience, 15(7), 1047-1053.
5. Park, H., Li, Y., & Tsien, R. W. (2012). Influence of synaptic vesicle position on release probability and exocytotic fusion mode. Science, 335(6074), 1362-1366.
6. Yoo, A. S., Sun, A. X., Li, L., Shcheglovitov, A., Portmann, T., Li, Y., ... & Crabtree, G. R. (2011). MicroRNA-mediated conversion of human fibroblasts to neurons. Nature, 476(7359), 228-231.
7. Zhang, Q., Li, Y., & Tsien, R. W. (2009). The dynamic control of kiss-and-run and vesicular reuse probed with single nanoparticles. Science, 323(5920), 1448-1453.
8. Kuner, T., Li, Y., Gee, K. R., Bonewald, L. F., & Augustine, G. J. (2008). Photolysis of a caged peptide reveals rapid action of N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor before neurotransmitter release. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(1), 347-352.
9. Li, Y., Augustine, G. J., & Weninger, K. (2007). Kinetics of complexin binding to the SNARE complex: correcting single molecule FRET measurements for hidden events. Biophysical journal, 93(6), 2178-2187.
10. Wang, H., Jing, M., & Li, Y. (2018). Lighting up the brain: genetically encoded fluorescent sensors for imaging neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 50, 171-178.
11. Qian, C., & Li, Y. (2015). Spine maturation and pruning during development: Cadherin/Catenin complexes come to help. Science China. Life sciences,58(9), 929.
12. Li, Y., & Rao, Y. (2015). Pied Piper of Neuroscience. Cell, 163(2), 267-268.
13. Wang, A., Feng, J., Li, Y., & Zou, P. (2018). Beyond Fluorescent Proteins: Hybrid and Bioluminescent Indicators for Imaging Neural Activities. ACS chemical neuroscience. Accepted.

COACHING CURRICULUM

Genetics discussion
CLS neurobiology track
PTN neurobiology track
Advanced neurobiology

LABORATORY INTRODUCTION

Specifically, for tool development, we focus on:

1, Development of non-invasive systems for opto-genetic mapping of electric synapses, a basic connection type between neurons. The malfunction of electric synapses could lead to devastating diseases such as deaf, heart problems, epilepsy and brain tumors.

2, Development of genetically-encoded sensors for imaging neurotransmitters/modulators. Those transmitters or modulators are crucial mediators for chemical synaptic transmission, important for our perception, learning/memory and our emotion.

Taking advantage of the above imaging sensors and additional, our functional studies are concentrating on:

1, Exploration, identification and characterization of potential novel small molecule transmitters by a combination of bioinformatics, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and imaging approaches.

2, Proteomic mapping of the Large Dense Core Vesicles (LDCV), an important yet poor characterized secretory organelle in neurons. The peptide release from LDCV is critically modulating the brain states, such as food foraging, aggression behavior and circadian rhythm.

3, Matching the above novel chemical transmitters/ modulators with their cognate receptors: deorphanization of orphan receptors.

4, Combined 2-photon imaging and genetically-encoded probes, studying how high brain centers are controlled during perception (olfaction) or sleep using fly and mice as model systems.