Wei Shen
Assistant Professor
School of Life Science and Technology
Shanghai Tech University
China
Biography
Dr. Shen obtained his bachelor’s degree in biology from Tsinghua University in 2007 (Mentor, Dr. Zihe Rao) and then he pursued his Ph.D in behavioral neuroscience at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution (Mentor, Dr. Craig Montell) where he used fruit fly to understand the mechanism for thermosensation. Soon after he finished his Ph.D in 2013, he went to Rockefeller University (Mentor, Dr. Jeff Friedman) as a postdoctoral associate to learn mammalian genetics and study obesity related research. In 2014, he joined School of Life Science and Technology in Shanghaitech University as an assistant professor (Tenure-track), PI, focusing on study of neural mechanism for thermoregulation and feeding behaviors, and their link to diseases.
Research Interest
Neural Mechanism under innate behaviors Thermal homeostasis is the ability of an organism, including most mammals to keep its body temperature within a narrow boundary, even under thermal challenge or other stimuli. Thermal homeostasis is necessary for other physiological activities to take place. Deviations in cellular temperature alter a variety of molecular properties, including enzymatic efficiency, diffusion rate and membrane fluidity, which reduce critical cellular functions, including energy availability and ionic fluxes. Misregulation of body temperature, such as fever and hypothermia, are commonly seen in patients. Furthermore, thermoregulation is tightly connected to energy expenditure as 50% of fuel is spent to maintain body temperature at rest.
Publications
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Zhang, Y., Raghuwanshi, R.P., Shen, W.L., and Montell, C. (2013). Food experience-induced taste desensitization modulated by the Drosophila TRPL channel. Nat Neurosci, 16, 1468-1476.
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Luo, J., Shen, W.L., & Montell, C. (2017) TRPA1 mediates sensation of the rate of temperature change in Drosophila larvae. Nat Neurosci 20(1), 34-41.
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Zhao, Z., Yang, W., Gao, C., Fu, X., Zhang, W., Zhou, Q., Chen, W., Ni, X., Lin, J., Yang, J., Xu, X., Shen, W.L.* (2017) Hypothalamic circuit that controls body temperature. Proc Natl Acad Sci. In press. (*, corresponding author)
