Large numbers of genes turn on and off in temporally and spatially precise patterns in the brain to regulate neural circuit development and refinement. The Yang laboratory is interested in the chromatin mechanisms operating in the nucleus that organize functional neural circuits. We are studying how developmental signals or sensory experience in vivo activate these chromatin mechanisms to orchestrate programs of gene expression in the brain. Our model system is the mouse cerebellum, a hindbrain structure important for motor coordination and motor learning. A major goal is to elucidate how chromatin mechanisms and gene expression networks pattern the neural circuits underlying motor behavior and learning and memory.

The laboratory deploys next-generation molecular neuroscience approaches including epigenetics and chromatin conformation profiling using massive parallel sequencing, single-cell sequencing, and bioinformatics, as well as systems neuroscience tools including optogenetics, in vivo two-photon calcium imaging, and mouse behavior.