Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Neurons have an innate capacity to make electrical connections, both near and far, and are responsive to external cues that allows for modifications of these connections. These properties underlie the foundations of cognition, behavior, and learning/memory. My laboratory is interested in how the nervous system remodels in response to changes in local cellular environments, focusing particularly on the integration of new neurons into established circuitry. This interesting problem is highly relevant to our understanding of nervous system function in both health and disease.

Postdoctoral Fellow, HHMI, UCSF, 2002-2007.

M.D., University of Chicago, 2002

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1997

B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993

Kuo, C.T., Mirzadeh, Z., Soriano, M., Rasin, M., Wang, D., Shen, J., Sestan, N., Garcia-Verdugo, J., Alvarez-Buylla, A., Jan, L.Y., and Jan, Y.N. 2006. Postnatal deletion of Numb/Numblike reveals repair and remodeling capacity in the subventricular neurogenic niche. Cell (127): 1253-1264.

Kuo, C.T., Zhu, S.J., Younger, S., Jan, L.Y., and Jan, Y.N. 2006. Identification of E2/E3 ubiquitinating enzymes and caspase activity regulating Drosophila sensory neuron dendrite pruning. Neuron (51): 283-290.

Kuo, C.T., Jan, L.Y., and Jan, Y.N. 2005. Dendrite-specific remodeling of Drosophila sensory neurons requires matrix metalloproteases, ubiquitin-proteasome, and ecdysone signaling. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (102): 15230-15235.