Research Interest
1. Investigating the foundations of behavior and intelligence using small model organisms (e.g., C. elegans, Drosophila larvae, and larval zebrafish).
2. Systems and Computational neuroscience.
3. Developing and refining optical techniques for monitoring and manipulating the behavior and neural circuits of small animals.
4. Connectomics: the relationship between the structure and function in a neural circuit.
Education and Positions
- Professor at the Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, USTC
- Graduated in 2001 with a B.Sc. in Physics from Fudan University
- 2001-2007: Studied at the Department of Physics, Stony Brook University, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, earning a Ph.D. in Physics
- 2008: Associate at Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- 2009-2014: Postdoctoral research at the Department of Physics and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University
- Joined the School of Life Sciences at the University of Science and Technology of China in 2014
We study the brain, mind and behavior within small and optically transparent model organisms, notably C. elegans and larval zebrafish, through diverse experimental and computational methodologies. We innovate optical tools designed for high-resolution whole-brain calcium imaging under naturalistic behaviors, as well as data curation pipeline for rapid inference and quantitative analysis of neural dynamics and behaviors. The integration of brain activity maps, connectome, genetics, and behavioral data allows us to construct computational models aimed at elucidating the principles of neural code that underpin sensorimotor behaviors. Specifically, we focus on the structure-function relationship of neural networks, behavior control, the geometry of neural code, and the spatiotemporal neural dynamics intrinsic to naturalistic behavior. We have pioneered the application of statistical physics to explain the complex morphology of dendritic arbors; we have demonstrated the fundamental role of proprioception in movement control in C. elegans. Furthermore, our group was among the first to accomplish whole-brain functional imaging in freely behaving larval zebrafish.
Selected Publications
• Jing Huo#, Tianqi Xu#,*, Qi Liu, Mahiber Polat, Sandeep Kumar, Xiaoqian Zhang, Andrew Leifer, Quan Wen*. Hierarchical behavior control by a single class of interneurons, PNAS, in press.
• Zezhen Wang#, Weihao Mai#, Yuming Chai#, Kexin Qi, Hongtai Ren, Chen Shen, Shiwu Zhang, Yu Hu*, and Quan Wen*. The geometry and dimensionality of brain-wide activity. eLife Review preprint, in press.
• Yuan Wang#, Xiaoqian Zhang#, Qi Xin#, Wesley Hung, Jeremy Florman, Jing Huo, Tianqi Xu, Yu Xie, Mark J. Alkema, Mei Zhen, Quan Wen*. Flexible motor sequence generation during stereotyped escape responses. eLife, June 2020. Also see Insight in eLife
• Lin Cong#, Zeguan Wang#, Yuming Chai#, Wei Hang#, Chunfeng Shang, Wenbing Yang, Lu Bai, Jiulin Du, Kai Wang*, Quan Wen*. Rapid whole brain imaging of neural activity in freely behaving larval zebrafish.eLife Sep. 20 2017. See News and Views in Nature Methods and Nature Methods of the year.
• Quan Wen*, Michelle Po, Elizabeth Hulme, Sway Chen, Xinyu Liu, Marc Gershow, Andrew Leifer, Victoria Butler, Christopher Fang-Yen, William Schafer, George Whitesides, Matthieu Wyart, Dmitri Chklovskii, Mei Zhen and Aravinthan Samuel*. Proprioceptive couplings within motor neurons drive C. elegans forward locomotion. Neuron 76, 750–761, November 21, 2012. Also see Preview in Neuron 76, 669-670, 2012.
• Quan Wen, Armen Stepanyants, Guy Elston, Alexander Grosberg and Dmitri Chklovskii*. Maximizing the connectivity repertoire as a statistical principle governing the dendritic arbor shape. PNAS 2009 Jul 28;106(30):12536-41.
Recruitment
The lab is actively recruiting postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate interns. Candidates with backgrounds in physics, mathematics, engineering, and molecular biology are welcome. Interested individuals should send their CV to qwen@ustc.edu.cn.
Contact Information
Address: Room 208, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China (West Campus), 443 Huangshan Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230027, China.
Email: qwen@ustc.edu.cn
Lab website: [http://www.wenlab.org](http://www.wenlab.org)
Course website: [https//cneuroustc.github.io](https://cneuroustc.github.io/)