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Minmin Luo, Ph.D.

Investigator, NIBS, Beijing, China

Phone：010-80726688

Fax： 010-80723342

E-mail：luominmin@nibs.ac.cn

Education

2000	Ph. D. Neuroscience, 2000, University of Pennsylvania, USA
1997	M.S. Computer Science, 1997，University of Pennsylvania, USA
1995	B.S. Psychology，1995，Peking University, China

Professional Experience

2013-present

Investigator, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China

2010-2013

Associate Investigator in the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China

2005-2010

Assistant Investigator in the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China

Recipient of HFSP Young Investigators Award (2006-2009) and NSFC Young Investigator Award (2006-2009)

2004-2005

Investigator in the Institute of Neuroscience of Chinese Academy of Sciences

2000-2004

Postdoctoral Fellow with Lawrence C. Katz in HHMI and the Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, USA

Recipient of

Research Description

Reward and punishment motivate animal behaviors, produce the feelings of pleasure and disappointment, and guide learning and memory formation. They are a matter of life and death for an individual as well as the species, and affect mood and emotion in our daily life. Mice share with humans key features of reward- and punishment-related behaviors and the underlying neural pathways. Using genetically modified mice as the model system, my laboratory studies how neural circuits organize behavioral responses to reward and punishment. At present we focus on the dorsal raphe nucleus and the medial habenula, as well as their interconnected brain areas. Using electrophysiological and optical approaches, we record the activity patterns of genetically identified neuron types from behaving mice. We also combine optogenetics and chemogenetics to examine how stimulation, inhibition, or lesion of specific neurons affects animal behaviors. Finally, we carry out whole-cell patch recordings from brain slices to study the effects of drugs and cellular signal transduction pathways. The dysfunctions of reward and punishment processing are associated with several devastating psychiatric disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, and drug addiction. Thus, our study not only help understand the neurobiological basis of some fundamental animal behaviors but also may facilitate clinical efforts toward the cure of mental diseases.

Publications

1. Luo M* (2011) Long-range intracortical excitation shapes olfactory processing. Neuron 72:1-3. (Invited preview).

2. Gong R, Ding C, Hu J, Lu Y, Liu F, Mann E, Xu F, Cohen MB and Luo M*(2011) Role for the membrane receptor guanylyl cyclase-C in attention deficiency and hyperactive behavior. Science 333:1642-1646.

3. Ren J, Qin C, Hu F, Tan J, Qiu L, Zhao S, Feng G, Luo M* (2011) Habenula "cholinergic" neurons corelease glutamate and acetylcholine and activate postsynaptic neurons via distinct transmission modes. Neuron 69:445-452. (featured with cover)

4. Zhan C, Luo M* (2010) Diverse patterns of odor representation by neurons in the anterior piriform cortex of awake mice. J Neurosci30:16662–16672.

5. Tan J, Savigner A, Ma M, and Luo M* (2010) Odor information processing by the olfactory bulb analyzed in gene-targeted mice.Neuron 65:912-926. (featured with video abstract)

6. Luo M*, Sun L, and Hu J (2009) Neural detection of gases—carbon dioxide, oxygen—in vertebrates and invertebrates. Curr Opinion Neurobiol 19:354-361.

7. Sun L, Wan H, Hu J, Han J, Matsunami H, and Luo M* (2009) Guanylyl cyclase-D in the olfactory CO₂ neurons is activated by bicarbonate. PNAS106:2041-2046.

8. Yan Z, Tan J, Qin C, Lu Y, Ding C, and Luo M* (2008) Precise circuitry links bilaterally symmetric olfactory maps. Neuron 58:613–624. (featured with preview)

9. Hu J, Zhong C, Ding C, Chi Q, Walz A, Mombaerts P, Matsunami H, andLuo M* (2007) Detection of near-atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ by an olfactory subsystem. Science 317:953-957.

10. Luo, M* and Katz LC (2004) Encoding pheromones by the mammalian vomeronasal system. Curr Opinion Neurobiol 14:428-34.

11. Luo, M*, Fee, MS, and Katz, LC (2003) Encoding pheromonal signals in the accessory olfactory bulb of behaving mice. Science 299:1196-1201 (full research article featured with cover and News and Views).

12. Luo, M* and Katz, LC (2001) Response correlation maps of neurons in the mammalian olfactory bulb. Neuron 32:1165-1179.

13. Luo, M, Ding, L, and Perkel, DJ (2001) An avian basal ganglia pathway essential for vocal learning nucleus in the zebra finch song system forms closed topographic loops. J Neurosci 21:6836-45.

14. Luo, M, and Perkel, DJ (1999) A GABAergic, strongly inhibitory projection to a thalamic nucleus in the zebra finch song system. J Neurosci19(15):6700-11.

Scientists&Research

Minmin Luo, Ph.D.