Liang Liang, PhD, BS
Assistant ProfessorCards
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Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
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Appointments
Additional Titles
Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
Contact Info
Appointments
Additional Titles
Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
Contact Info
About
Titles
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
Biography
Liang Liang received her B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Tsinghua University in China. She then moved to the United States and completed her M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Stanford University under the supervision of Drs. Liqun Luo and Mark Schnitzer. During her graduate work, Liang identified a novel circuit motif that recruited excitatory and inhibitory channels in parallel to shape odor processing in the fruit fly, using two-photon imaging, laser dissection and optogenetics. She was supported by a Stanford Graduate Fellowship and a Lubert Stryer Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship. Liang joined the groups of Drs. Chinfei Chen and Mark Andermann at Harvard Medical School for her postdoctoral training, where she studied functional organization and state-dependent modulation of retinal axons in the early visual system of awake behaving mice. She was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (SCGB). Liang joined the Department of Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in 2020. Her laboratory studies the computation of information selectivity along the visual hierarchy with a primary focus on the visual thalamic circuitry, taking a combination of in vivo imaging, genetic, behavioral, and computational approaches.
Appointments
Neuroscience
Assistant ProfessorPrimary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
- Janeway Society
- Neuroscience
- Neuroscience Track
- Swartz Program in Theoretical Neurobiology
- Wu Tsai Institute
- Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)
Education & Training
- Research Fellow
- Boston Children's Hospital (2019)
- PhD
- Stanford University, Applied Physics (2013)
- BS
- Tsinghua University, Mathematics and Physics (2006)
Research
Overview
Our laboratory studies the computation of information selectivity along the visual hierarchy, taking a combination of in vivo imaging, genetic, behavioral, and computational approaches. Our research primarily focuses on visual thalamic circuitry. The primary visual thalamus integrates inputs from the retina with inputs from multiple brain centers, and the thalamic output provides the main feedforward visual information to the cortex. Rather than being a simple relay station, a growing body of research suggests that rich visual computation and neuromodulation already takes place in the thalamus prior to the cortex. However, in contrast to the retina and visual cortex, we know much less about the visual computation associated to the thalamus. For example, it remains unclear how diverse channels of retinal information may be enriched, reinforced and flexibly tuned in the thalamus and how thalamic visual processing impacts downstream visual representation. By integrating our newly developed imaging technologies and several state-of-the-art methods, we will dissect the functional organization of synapses and neural circuits in the thalamus at an unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution, and identify the rules of computing visual information selectivity there. We also work on cracking the long-range functional connectivity of the retino-thalamo-cortical visual pathway to understand the progressive contribution of visual centers in establishing visual feature representations.
Medical Research Interests
ORCID
0000-0001-5718-0717- View Lab Website
Liang Lab
Publications
2024
Hebbian instruction of axonal connectivity by endogenous correlated spontaneous activity
Matsumoto N, Barson D, Liang L, Crair M. Hebbian instruction of axonal connectivity by endogenous correlated spontaneous activity. Science 2024, 385: eadh7814. PMID: 39146415, DOI: 10.1126/science.adh7814.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsSpontaneous activitySpontaneous retinal wavesAxonal connectionsPatterns of correlated activityNeonatal miceEvidence in vivoRetinal wavesPostsynaptic neuronsNeuronal activityIn vivoAxonal arborsAxonal processesAxonsRetinocollicular axonsNeural connectionsIndividual axonsMorphological changesSubcellular precisionEndogenous pattern
2022
Brainstem serotonin neurons selectively gate retinal information flow to thalamus
Reggiani J, Jiang Q, Barbini M, Lutas A, Liang L, Fernando J, Deng F, Wan J, Li Y, Chen C, Andermann M. Brainstem serotonin neurons selectively gate retinal information flow to thalamus. Neuron 2022, 111: 711-726.e11. PMID: 36584680, PMCID: PMC10131437, DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.12.006.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsVisual information streamsRetinal ganglion cell typesBrainstem serotonin neuronsFiber photometry recordingsGanglion cell typesTwo-photon calcium imagingSerotonin neuronsVisual thalamusGlutamate releaseSerotonergic axonsRGC axonsSerotonin axonsThalamocortical neuronsAxon stimulationAwake micePresynaptic terminalsCalcium imagingOptogenetic stimulationCalcium activityLocal visual stimuliAxonsThalamusBoutonsVisual stimuliNeuronsMating-driven variability in olfactory local interneuron wiring
Chou YH, Yang CJ, Huang HW, Liou NF, Panganiban MR, Luginbuhl D, Yin Y, Taisz I, Liang L, Jefferis GSXE, Luo L. Mating-driven variability in olfactory local interneuron wiring. Science Advances 2022, 8: eabm7723. PMID: 35179957, PMCID: PMC8856614, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm7723.Peer-Reviewed Original Research
2020
Organization, Function, and Development of the Mouse Retinogeniculate Synapse
Liang L, Chen C. Organization, Function, and Development of the Mouse Retinogeniculate Synapse. Annual Review Of Vision Science 2020, 6: 261-285. PMID: 32936733, DOI: 10.1146/annurev-vision-121219-081753.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsRetinogeniculate synapseDistinct retinal ganglion cell typesRetinal ganglion cell typesGanglion cell typesImage-forming pathwayVisual thalamusThalamocortical neuronsVisual pathwayExperimental modelCircuit organizationThalamusSynapseMiceCell typesFunctional organizationRecent studiesPowerful experimental modelCurrent understandingVisual spaceVisual experiencePathwayNeuronsRGCsRetinal Inputs to the Thalamus Are Selectively Gated by Arousal
Liang L, Fratzl A, Reggiani JDS, El Mansour O, Chen C, Andermann ML. Retinal Inputs to the Thalamus Are Selectively Gated by Arousal. Current Biology 2020, 30: 3923-3934.e9. PMID: 32795442, PMCID: PMC7665906, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.07.065.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsVisual thalamusVisual responsesMajority of boutonsTwo-photon calciumCentral visual processingArousal stateIntermediate spatial frequenciesEnhancement of responsesAxonal boutonsRetinal axonsRetinal inputDifferent pupil sizesVisual pathwayThalamusBoutonsMouse thalamusVisual processingMagnitude of responseVisual information channelsDistinct subsetsEarly stagesPupil sizeNeural activityDifferential modulationBehavioral states
2018
A fine-scale functional logic to convergence from retina to thalamus
Fratzl A, Liang L. A fine-scale functional logic to convergence from retina to thalamus. 2018 DOI: 10.26226/morressier.5b31ec2f2afeeb001345af0c.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchA Fine-Scale Functional Logic to Convergence from Retina to Thalamus
Liang L, Fratzl A, Goldey G, Ramesh RN, Sugden AU, Morgan JL, Chen C, Andermann ML. A Fine-Scale Functional Logic to Convergence from Retina to Thalamus. Cell 2018, 173: 1343-1355.e24. PMID: 29856953, PMCID: PMC6003778, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.04.041.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsAxonal boutonsRetinal ganglion cellsTwo-photon calciumImage-forming visionClusters of boutonsVisual thalamusGanglion cellsRetinal axonsBouton clustersThalamusMouse thalamusIndividual axonsDifferent axonsFeature selectivityBoutonsFine-scale organizationAxonsDendritic domainsUltrastructural analysisRetina
2017
In Vivo Imaging of CNS Injury and Disease
Akassoglou K, Merlini M, Rafalski VA, Real R, Liang L, Jin Y, Dougherty SE, De Paola V, Linden DJ, Misgeld T, Zheng B. In Vivo Imaging of CNS Injury and Disease. Journal Of Neuroscience 2017, 37: 10808-10816. PMID: 29118209, PMCID: PMC5678013, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1826-17.2017.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsCNS injuryNeural transplantationGlial responseNeurovascular unitAxonal degenerationSpinal cordMammalian CNSRodent brainCellular responsesInjuryDiseaseVivo imagingImagingOptical imagingNeuroinflammationResponseMini-SymposiumTransplantationGlialCordTherapyCNSDegenerationImportant new insightsBrain
2013
High-speed laser microsurgery of alert fruit flies for fluorescence imaging of neural activity
Sinha S, Liang L, Ho ET, Urbanek KE, Luo L, Baer TM, Schnitzer MJ. High-speed laser microsurgery of alert fruit flies for fluorescence imaging of neural activity. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America 2013, 110: 18374-18379. PMID: 24167298, PMCID: PMC3832030, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1216287110.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsLive animalsCellular functionsFruit flySmall organismsMushroom bodiesKenyon cellsFliesAntennal lobeLive organismsOrganismsNeuronal plasticityHigh-throughput preparationMouse craniumExperimental throughputFluorescence imagingMicrosurgical openingLaser microsurgeryAntsVivo microscopy studiesNematodesAnimalsTwo-photon microscopySpeciesPhototaxisOptical experimentationGABAergic Projection Neurons Route Selective Olfactory Inputs to Specific Higher-Order Neurons
Liang L, Li Y, Potter CJ, Yizhar O, Deisseroth K, Tsien RW, Luo L. GABAergic Projection Neurons Route Selective Olfactory Inputs to Specific Higher-Order Neurons. Neuron 2013, 79: 917-931. PMID: 24012005, PMCID: PMC3838762, DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.06.014.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsLateral horn neuronsInhibitory projection neuronsInnate olfactory behaviorsInhibitory tonePresynaptic inhibitionDrosophila olfactory systemHigher-order neuronsProjection neuronsAxon terminalsAntennal lobe glomeruliLateral hornConnection specificityDetectable suppressionOlfactory inputOdor responsesNeuronsOlfactory informationOlfactory systemHigher centersParallel inhibitionDifferential effectsDownstream circuitsInhibition motifCircuit motifsInhibition
Academic Achievements & Community Involvement
honor Lawrence Young Investigator Award
Yale School of Medicine AwardThe Lawrence Family Young Investigators ProgramDetails10/01/2022United Stateshonor The E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation for the Blind research award
National AwardThe E. Matilda Ziegler FoundationDetails04/01/2022United Stateshonor Whitehall Foundation Research Grant
National AwardWhitehall FoundationDetails08/01/2021United Stateshonor Kavli Innovative Research Award
Yale University AwardKavli Institute for NeuroscienceDetails06/01/2021United Stateshonor Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research
Regional AwardRichard and Susan Smith Family FoundationDetails04/01/2021United States
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