معرفی
Jun Wang, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics at Texas A&M University's College of Medicine. His research focuses on basal ganglia circuitry in neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly alcohol use disorder (AUD), opioid use disorder (OUD), and Alzheimer's disease. He uses optogenetics, electrophysiology, and viral transgenics to study synapse-specific plasticity and circuit dysfunction. His lab explores how alcohol alters striatal cholinergic interneurons and corticostriatal pathways, with a focus on developing therapies targeting synaptic plasticity to reduce relapse. He trains students in TAMIN (Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience) and Toxicology programs.
Education: MD from Tongji Medical University, PhD from Shanghai Brain Research Institute, and postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley/UCSF. Research emphasizes dorsal striatum subdivisions (DMS/DLS), opioid-related striatal patches, and Alzheimer's-related cholinergic deficits. Collaborates on projects involving traumatic brain injury and alcohol's effects on cognition.
Lab members include 18 researchers (postdocs, PhD/Master students, and undergraduates). Key techniques include ArcTRAP labeling, dual-channel optogenetics, and FosTRAP approaches. Current grants fund studies on striatal engrams in AUD and opioid addiction, with translational goals for clinical interventions.
Publications span 1997–2025, with recent work in Science Advances, Nature Communications, and Neuropharmacology. Awards: None listed, though his work is funded by NIH/NIAAA grants. Future directions include fentanyl abuse mechanisms and striatal dysfunction in Alzheimer's.
