Welcome to the Sheng Lab
Located in the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, the Sheng lab is focused on discovering the underlying mechanisms of serious mental illness (especially schizophrenia and bipolar disorder). Our ultimate goal, based on emerging human genetics and new biological insights, is to develop novel transformative treatments that will benefit the lives of individuals suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
Research
We study the biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders - from the molecular-cellular to the circuit-systems level in the brain. Our current research focus is on genetic animal models of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder built on human genetics findings at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. Using multidisciplinary approaches such as transcriptomics, proteomics, electrophysiology, EEG, brain imaging and behavior, and aided by computational science, we seek to uncover the core pathophysiologies of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, identify new therapeutic targets and discover novel therapeutic agents and biomarkers that will be helpful for treatment of these serious mental illnesses. In addition, we are interested in neuroimmune mechanisms in the brain (especially microglia and astrocytes) and their role in the pathogenesis of psychiatric (e.g. schizophrenia, depression) and neurodegenerative (e.g. Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia) disorders.
Mechanisms of Psychiatric Illness
Multidisciplinary approaches spanning transcriptomics, proteomics, slice electrophysiology, scalp EEG, calcium imaging, behavior and computational analyses are used to gain an understanding of underlying molecular-cellular and circuit-systems level mechanisms in mouse models of schizophrenia, biopolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.
Drug and Biomarker Discovery
Stanley Center Therapeutics is an interdisciplinary team of scientists specializing in neurobiology, translational research, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology and drug discovery. The team works together on multiple projects to discover innovative therapeutics and new biomarkers for psychiatric illnesses (especially schizophrenia and bipolar disorder).