Alex Kwan, PhD
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About
Titles
Associate Professor Adjunct of Psychiatry
Biography
Alex Kwan is an Associate Professor in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. Before moving to Cornell in 2022, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.
He received a B.A.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Simon Fraser University and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University. At Cornell, he developed nonlinear optical microscopes in the laboratory of Watt Webb. In 2009, he went to the University of California, Berkeley to work in the laboratory of Yang Dan, where he studied cortical microcircuits.
Research in the Kwan lab focuses on the mouse medial frontal cortex. We are interested in how dendritic plasticity may underlie the actions of psychiatric drugs and how cortical circuits enable flexible decision-making. Our expertise lies in developing and applying optical methods to record and control neural activity in behaving mice.
Appointments
Psychiatry
Associate Professor AdjunctPrimary
Other Departments & Organizations
Education & Training
- Postdoctoral
- University of California, Berkeley (2009 - 2013) (2013)
- PhD
- Cornell University (2009)
- MS
- Cornell University (2007)
- BS
- Simon Fraser University (2003)
Research
Overview
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Links & Media
News
- September 17, 2021Source: WTNH-News 8
Yale Researchers Using Psychedelics to Find New Treatments for Depression
- August 02, 2021Source: New Haven Register
Psilocybin in “Magic Mushrooms” May Help Treat Depression, Yale Research Shows
- July 06, 2021Source: Yale News
Psychedelic Spurs Growth of Neural Connections Lost in Depression
- January 06, 2020
Yale Study: Ketamine Disinhibits Dendrites and Enhances Calcium Signals in Prefrontal Dendritic Spines