ZhenggangZhu
@zhenggang.bsky.social
Sanford Fellow @UCSDCompassion Alumni @HHMI, Identifying 🧬 for self/social motivation with 3D spatial omics
Pinned
ZhenggangZhu
@zhenggang.bsky.social
· Mar 30
(1/n) Why is it so hard to stop eating when something tastes amazing? Our new @ science.org paper reveals that dopamine helps sustain our drive for tasty treats—and may explain how anti-obesity Ozempic tames those urges. doi.org/10.1126/science.adt0773
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Join us next Thursday (10/23) for #SYNAPSES, a senior postdoc symposium @yaleneuro.bsky.social @kavliatyale.bsky.social
Talks will be given by:
- @annrosebright.bsky.social, PhD👩🔬
- Peter Hasenhuetl, PhD 🔬
- Minhyeok Chang, PhD 🧑🔬
- @zhenggang.bsky.social, PhD 🥼
Register Today! Yale only.
Talks will be given by:
- @annrosebright.bsky.social, PhD👩🔬
- Peter Hasenhuetl, PhD 🔬
- Minhyeok Chang, PhD 🧑🔬
- @zhenggang.bsky.social, PhD 🥼
Register Today! Yale only.
October 16, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Join us next Thursday (10/23) for #SYNAPSES, a senior postdoc symposium @yaleneuro.bsky.social @kavliatyale.bsky.social
Talks will be given by:
- @annrosebright.bsky.social, PhD👩🔬
- Peter Hasenhuetl, PhD 🔬
- Minhyeok Chang, PhD 🧑🔬
- @zhenggang.bsky.social, PhD 🥼
Register Today! Yale only.
Talks will be given by:
- @annrosebright.bsky.social, PhD👩🔬
- Peter Hasenhuetl, PhD 🔬
- Minhyeok Chang, PhD 🧑🔬
- @zhenggang.bsky.social, PhD 🥼
Register Today! Yale only.
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
We’re hiring!
My new Gut–Brain Axis Lab at Northwestern is looking for a Research Technologist 2 to help build the lab and explore how the nervous system shapes gut health and disease.
🔬 Apply here: myhr.northwestern.edu/psp/hrnu/EMP...
My new Gut–Brain Axis Lab at Northwestern is looking for a Research Technologist 2 to help build the lab and explore how the nervous system shapes gut health and disease.
🔬 Apply here: myhr.northwestern.edu/psp/hrnu/EMP...
Sign In
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myhr.northwestern.edu
September 30, 2025 at 10:32 PM
We’re hiring!
My new Gut–Brain Axis Lab at Northwestern is looking for a Research Technologist 2 to help build the lab and explore how the nervous system shapes gut health and disease.
🔬 Apply here: myhr.northwestern.edu/psp/hrnu/EMP...
My new Gut–Brain Axis Lab at Northwestern is looking for a Research Technologist 2 to help build the lab and explore how the nervous system shapes gut health and disease.
🔬 Apply here: myhr.northwestern.edu/psp/hrnu/EMP...
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Finally out: our recent work with Nick Betley is a view into how the brain reshapes its behavior in the face of competing survival needs- and also a potential angle on treatment targets for enduring pain.
A brief rundown...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brief rundown...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A parabrachial hub for need-state control of enduring pain - Nature
Activity in a set of parabranchial neurons in the mouse brain is increased during chronic pain, predicts coping behaviour, and can be modulated by circuits activated by survival threats.
www.nature.com
October 9, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Finally out: our recent work with Nick Betley is a view into how the brain reshapes its behavior in the face of competing survival needs- and also a potential angle on treatment targets for enduring pain.
A brief rundown...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brief rundown...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Excited to share our latest paper - now out in @science.org - we showed how oxytocin modulates maternally-directed behavior in young mice (P15).
September 12, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Excited to share our latest paper - now out in @science.org - we showed how oxytocin modulates maternally-directed behavior in young mice (P15).
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Proposal recommended for funding! Which means we have a fresh, 3-year-funded position available for a computational postdoc interested in studying dynamics of social interactions in rats, with simultaneous Neuropixels data to follow 🐀🐀🐀
Proper job ad pending, but email me if interested!
Proper job ad pending, but email me if interested!
July 15, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Proposal recommended for funding! Which means we have a fresh, 3-year-funded position available for a computational postdoc interested in studying dynamics of social interactions in rats, with simultaneous Neuropixels data to follow 🐀🐀🐀
Proper job ad pending, but email me if interested!
Proper job ad pending, but email me if interested!
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
It's officially published!! In my main postdoc work with @markplitt.bsky.social and @lgiocomo.bsky.social, we found that the hippocampus simultaneously encodes an animal's spatial position and its experience relative to reward in parallel population codes. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A flexible hippocampal population code for experience relative to reward - Nature Neuroscience
Sosa et al. find that hippocampal neural activity in mice encodes both environmental location and experience relative to rewards, spanning distances far from reward, through parallel and flexible popu...
www.nature.com
June 12, 2025 at 5:24 PM
It's officially published!! In my main postdoc work with @markplitt.bsky.social and @lgiocomo.bsky.social, we found that the hippocampus simultaneously encodes an animal's spatial position and its experience relative to reward in parallel population codes. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
The firing of neural populations is high-dim even if their subthreshold activity is low-dim! This work by @bio-emergent.bsky.social and @haydari.bsky.social shows how, with a solvable model, a data analysis technique, and data from mouse visual cortex: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
High-dimensional neuronal activity from low-dimensional latent dynamics: a solvable model
Computation in recurrent networks of neurons has been hypothesized to occur at the level of low-dimensional latent dynamics, both in artificial systems and in the brain. This hypothesis seems at odds ...
www.biorxiv.org
June 9, 2025 at 11:49 AM
The firing of neural populations is high-dim even if their subthreshold activity is low-dim! This work by @bio-emergent.bsky.social and @haydari.bsky.social shows how, with a solvable model, a data analysis technique, and data from mouse visual cortex: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Excited to share our Science paper on HaloDA1.0-the first genetically encoded far-red dopamine sensor! 🥳It enables powerful multiplex imaging in neurons, brain slices, and live animals.🧠🔬 #GRABsensors #Dopamine www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In vivo multiplex imaging of dynamic neurochemical networks with designed far-red dopamine sensors
Dopamine (DA) plays a crucial role in a variety of brain functions through intricate interactions with other neuromodulators and intracellular signaling pathways. However, studying these complex netwo...
www.science.org
June 6, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Excited to share our Science paper on HaloDA1.0-the first genetically encoded far-red dopamine sensor! 🥳It enables powerful multiplex imaging in neurons, brain slices, and live animals.🧠🔬 #GRABsensors #Dopamine www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Excited to share that the astrocyte-centered half of my thesis work is now out @science.org ! With @mishaahrens.bsky.social and @marcduque.bsky.social
science.org/doi/10.1126/... 1/8
science.org/doi/10.1126/... 1/8
Norepinephrine changes behavioral state through astroglial purinergic signaling
Both neurons and glia communicate through diffusible neuromodulators; however, how neuron-glial interactions in such neuromodulatory networks influence circuit computation and behavior is unclear. Dur...
science.org
May 16, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Excited to share that the astrocyte-centered half of my thesis work is now out @science.org ! With @mishaahrens.bsky.social and @marcduque.bsky.social
science.org/doi/10.1126/... 1/8
science.org/doi/10.1126/... 1/8
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Thrilled to share our work in ScienceAdvances: “Chronic ethanol exposure produces sex-dependent impairments in value computations in the striatum.” Huge thanks to Tricia @janaklab.bsky.social, Daeyeol @ungteoriz.bsky.social, Angela, and my friend Robin!
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Chronic ethanol exposure produces sex-dependent impairments in value computations in the striatum
Chronic ethanol exposure disrupts adaptive decision-making and striatal neurocomputations in a sex-dependent manner.
www.science.org
April 2, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Thrilled to share our work in ScienceAdvances: “Chronic ethanol exposure produces sex-dependent impairments in value computations in the striatum.” Huge thanks to Tricia @janaklab.bsky.social, Daeyeol @ungteoriz.bsky.social, Angela, and my friend Robin!
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Many of us use 2p scopes to image 3D volumes of brain. But then we analyze the data plane by plane, resulting in duplicated neurons, missed neurons, and low s/n. Let's go 3D!
Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
April 1, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Many of us use 2p scopes to image 3D volumes of brain. But then we analyze the data plane by plane, resulting in duplicated neurons, missed neurons, and low s/n. Let's go 3D!
Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Suite3D: Volumetric cell detection for two-photon microscopy
by @haydari.bsky.social & team.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
(1/n) Why is it so hard to stop eating when something tastes amazing? Our new @ science.org paper reveals that dopamine helps sustain our drive for tasty treats—and may explain how anti-obesity Ozempic tames those urges. doi.org/10.1126/science.adt0773
March 30, 2025 at 2:54 AM
(1/n) Why is it so hard to stop eating when something tastes amazing? Our new @ science.org paper reveals that dopamine helps sustain our drive for tasty treats—and may explain how anti-obesity Ozempic tames those urges. doi.org/10.1126/science.adt0773
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
New @science.org
Hedonic eating (eating for pleasure, not need) is mediated by dopamine neurons (in the brain ventral segmental area, VTA) and they are antagonized by GLP-1 drugs, such as semaglutide, leading to weight loss
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Hedonic eating (eating for pleasure, not need) is mediated by dopamine neurons (in the brain ventral segmental area, VTA) and they are antagonized by GLP-1 drugs, such as semaglutide, leading to weight loss
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Hedonic eating is controlled by dopamine neurons that oppose GLP-1R satiety
Hedonic eating is defined as food consumption driven by palatability without physiological need. However, neural control of palatable food intake is poorly understood. We discovered that hedonic eatin...
www.science.org
March 27, 2025 at 6:17 PM
New @science.org
Hedonic eating (eating for pleasure, not need) is mediated by dopamine neurons (in the brain ventral segmental area, VTA) and they are antagonized by GLP-1 drugs, such as semaglutide, leading to weight loss
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Hedonic eating (eating for pleasure, not need) is mediated by dopamine neurons (in the brain ventral segmental area, VTA) and they are antagonized by GLP-1 drugs, such as semaglutide, leading to weight loss
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
Our paper from Junchol Park and collaborators that has been brewing for a while. Trying to capture our thinking about what action specification in striatum means and what would constitute evidence for such a model. Longer thread soon, but it’s online now. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Conjoint specification of action by neocortex and striatum
Park et al. show that motor cortex and subcortical striatum act in concert to specify
the movement parameters of a reach-to-pull action in mice.
www.cell.com
January 24, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Our paper from Junchol Park and collaborators that has been brewing for a while. Trying to capture our thinking about what action specification in striatum means and what would constitute evidence for such a model. Longer thread soon, but it’s online now. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Reposted by ZhenggangZhu
HCN1 channels in GABAergic amygdalar neurons underpin male-biased aggressive behaviors https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.07.627305v1
December 8, 2024 at 1:15 PM
HCN1 channels in GABAergic amygdalar neurons underpin male-biased aggressive behaviors https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.07.627305v1