Introduction

Dr. Longwen Huang. Principal Investigator at Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Huang received his B.S. degree in biological sciences from Peking University in 2010 and subsequently received his Ph.D. degree in neuroscience in 2015 from Baylor College of Medicine. He then joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow, where he developed novel tools to map brain connectomes using DNA barcoding and high-throughput sequencing. In 2021, he was appointed as a principal investigator at the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The connectome is the wiring diagram of neural circuits. It determines how information is transmitted between neurons across brain regions. Thus, the apprehension of the connectome is pivotal for modern neuroscience. The development of novel tools allowing high-throughput connectome mapping is a major research objective for Dr. Huang, who also aims to investigate the crossmodal integration of connectivity, gene expression, and neural activity data. Specifically, his team probes DNA barcode-based methods that can achieve single-cell resolution and high throughput while also offering an avenue for simultaneous measurement through multiple modalities at single-cell resolution, including connectome, transcriptome, and activity. Besides tool development, Dr. Huang is passionate about the implementation of cutting-edge tools to unravel the circuit mechanisms underlying natural behaviors such as social and defensive conduct. He aims to elucidate the logic that links connectivity, gene expression, and neural activity to distinct modes of natural behaviors, and thus offer a more comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms of emotions. He hopes that his research can also provide valuable insights into the mechanisms of a variety of neural disorders such as depression, anxiety, and autism that disrupt natural behaviors, and can thus inspire novel circuit-based therapies.