Bio-X SIGF Graduate Student Fellow

Awarded in 2018
Home Department: Neurosciences
Faculty Advisors: Thomas Südhof (Molecular & Cellular Physiology) and Axel Brunger (Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Photon Science Directorate, and Neurology & Neurological Sciences)

Research Title: C1ql3 in Synapse Specification, from Molecular Structure to Olfactory Behavior

Research Description: The high fidelity of information transformation and processing by the brain requires high specificity of neural circuits, formed by precise synaptic connections between neurons. The formation and specification of synapses are mediated by trans-synaptic molecules.Photo of graduate student Cosmos Wang in the lab, seated next to a large microscope. Neurodevelop-mental and psychiatric disorders are often manifestations of neural circuit malfunction, but are always associated with some molecular defects. To overcome these diseases, we have to understand the biological functions of these molecules, as well as their downstream circuit effect on information processing and behaviors. Cosmos’s long-term goal is to combine genetics and structural biology to generate a conceptual framework to understand molecules, circuits, and behaviors holistically, and make contributions to the knowledge of brain functions and disorders from molecules to behaviors.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Cosmos is a postdoctoral fellow in Xiaowei Zhuang's lab at Harvard University, where he is applying spatially resolved single-cell multi-omics technologies to the brain.