From the Lab to the Limelight - Blog version of our #TraineeTuesday Twitter series
This #TraineeTuesday, we’re congratulating Hongli Wang, PhD, (Kwan lab), who recently defended his PhD thesis and published his first paper as first-author (eNeuro). Find out what mice playing a competitive game have to do with his research!
Hongli trained mice to play a game called “matching pennies” against a computer. He studied the neuromodulatory system’s role in decision-making by tracking fluctuations in norepinephrine and acetylcholine while mice played the game.
“New advances in technology make it possible to directly measure the activity of neuromodulators on a cellular- and subsecond-scale,” Hongli said. “The significance [of my thesis work] is that no one has ever recorded the fluctuation of norepinephrine and acetylcholine in the cortex with a two-photon microscope. The results further inspire us to propose the possible roles of acetylcholine and norepinephrine in the behavior.”
Hongli’s motto and reaction to defending his thesis was a line from the poem ‘The Lantern Festival Night’: “When all at once I turn my head, I find her there where lantern light is dimly shed.” His interest in neuroscience began at Fudan University in China, where he studied biology.
The idea of revealing how the brain works with the very same organ is fascinating. In a way you can even say the brain is trying to figure out how itself works.
Hongli Wang, PhD
Hongli is happy he chose Yale’s neuroscience community, which he found to consist of “talented minds all over the world” including wonderful mentors and friends. He reflected fondly on building the Kwan lab’s first optogenetic rig and starting a project from scratch.
Hongli plans to continue doing research and working in academia. Enamored by neuromodulation — an unexpected interest revealed in grad school — he hopes to continue building his current project through optogenetics and collaborations with others. Go Dr. Hongli Wang!