Han Chin Wang Wins the Paul Erlich Young Investigator's Day Award
Congratulations to Han Chin Wang, a neuroscience PhD student in Dwight Bergles lab for winning the Paul Erlich Young Investigator's Day Award.
Mentor: Dwight Bergles
Project Details: My study investigated the mechanism of spontaneous electrical activity during the development of the nervous system before any inputs from external environment are available. Although this activity presents in different regions of the brain and across different species, we still don’t fully understand how this activity influences the maturation of neural circuits. Using rodents as animal models, my thesis work identified the molecular pathway involved in generating spontaneous activity in the developing auditory system. We also identified a particular molecule, calcium-activated chloride channel TMEM16A, as the key component in this process. By removing TMEM16A from the mouse cochlea, we have generated a genetic animal model that exhibits much less spontaneous activity, which can be used for studying the functional roles of spontaneous activity in the developing auditory circuits. Learn more about Han's work and the Dwight Bergles Lab.
What’s Next: I am currently doing postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley.