Jun Ding, PhD, Principal Investigator

Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Bio

Jun Ding, PhD, is a scientist in the field of striatal neurobiology and basal ganglia research. His work employs a unque combination of novel microscopy techniques, electrophysiology and genetic tools. He performed his PhD dissertation research with Dr. D. James Surmeier at Northwestern University. For his postdoctoral training, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Bernardo Sabatini at Harvard Medical School. As an independent researcher, he investigates the functional organization of cortico-thalamobasal ganglia circuits.

Email: dingjun@stanford.edu

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Richard Roth, PhD

Post-doctoral Fellow

Bio

Richard received his PhD in Neuroscience from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he used in vivo imaging approaches to study synaptic plasticity during motor learning. As a postdoc in the Ding lab, Richard is focused on understanding how different brain circuits involved in motor control interact with each other to generate skilled motor movements. Originally from Germany, Richard enjoys traveling and skiing in his spare time.

Email: rhroth@stanford.edu

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Yue Sun, PhD

Post-doctoral Fellow

Bio

Yue Sun was born in Hangzhou, China. She earned her Ph.D. in 2017 at Fudan University. Her main thesis work was to study RNA splicing and its contribution to complex diseases when mis-regulated. In Stanford University, as a joint postdoctoral researcher in Jun Ding lab and Sui Wang lab (Ophthalmology Department), she focuses on two directions. One direction is to develope AAV tools for labeling gene expression profile or circuit-specific neurons in retina and brain. The other direction is to use activity-dependent labeling system to dissect neuronal subpopulations underlying different aspects of motor learning and use RNA-seq to identify genes critical for these processes.

Email: sunyue@stanford.edu

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Fuu-Jiun Hwang, PhD

Post-doctoral Fellow

Bio

Fuu-Jiun was born in Taipei, Taiwan. He got his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology graduate program (MCB) from UMass Amherst, studying Multivesicular Release (MRV) in hair cell ribbon synapses using patch clamp electrophysiology and Ca2+ imaging. After joining Ding lab, he is focusing on understanding how motor learning modulates synaptic plasticity. Outside the lab, he likes to play basketball and watch NBA.

Email: fuujiun@stanford.edu

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Qianru Yang, PhD

Post-doctoral Fellow

Bio

Qianru Yang is a postdoctoral fellow in the Ding Lab at Stanford, investigating the mechanisms of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson’s disease using in vivo imaging, with the goal of advancing neuromodulation therapies. Qianru earned her PhD in Neuroengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, where she developed novel optical and electrophysiological tools for brain–machine interface research. Outside the lab, Qianru enjoys rock climbing, dancing, and traveling.

Email: qryang@stanford.edu

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Garrett Sheehan, PhD

Post-doctoral Fellow

Bio

Garrett is from Buffalo, New York where he earned his PhD in Neuroscience from SUNY Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. During his graduate work, he studied the regulation of NMDA receptor ubiquitination by a synaptic scaffolding protein in the spinal cord dorsal horn during inflammatory pain. In the Ding lab, he is using a proximity labeling proteomics approach to unravel the mechanism of alpha-synuclein’s involvement in endocannabinoid plasticity in the striatum. In his free time Garrett enjoys hiking and cycling, and desperately wants to see the Buffalo Bills get to the Superbowl.

Email: gds32@stanford.edu

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Junghoon Ha, MD - PhD

Instructor

Bio

Junghoon earned his MD–PhD at Virginia Commonwealth University, where his doctoral research examined how G-protein signaling and neuronal activity contribute to disorders such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Following his neurology residency at VCU, he joined Stanford to investigate the in-tact brain circuits that govern movement and how they malfunction in Parkinson’s disease. His laboratory work integrates chemogenetics with multi-channel electrophysiology in mice to capture brain activity at millisecond resolution, with the ultimate goal of advancing understanding of movement disorders and developing new therapeutic strategies.

Email: JunghoonHa@stanford.edu

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Xiaobai Ren

Technician

Bio

Xiaobai obtained her PhD from Peking University, China. Prior to joining Dr. Ding’s Lab, she worked at MIT for several years. Her expertise includes virus packaging, cell biology, molecular biology and lab management. She is also an 8-year dragon boat veteran and enjoys baking and fishing in her time off.

Email: xiaobai@stanford.edu

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