JUSTL participant: Dr Junyu Xu

21 May 2020

Dr Junyu Xu is an Associate Professor at the Center of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Ministry of Health at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou (China). She completed her PhD in 2009 in the laboratory of Prof Jun Xia (Division of Life Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology). There, she investigated the roles of the extracellular matrix protein, thrombospondin 1 (TSP1), and the adaptor protein, protein interacting with C kinase 1 (PICK1), in neuroligin-mediated synaptogenesis, a process that is essential in the central nervous system for establishing the neural networks required for memory, learning, social communication and many other complex brain functions. After finishing her PhD, Dr Xu worked in the Division of Life Science (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and Shenzhen-PKU-HKUST Medical Center (Shenzhen, China) for 2 years, after which she moved to Zhejiang University.

Current Work

Dr Xu has worked at Zhejiang University since 2011. There, she continues her work on neuroligin, and she has now extended her research field to investigate its role in synapse formation and in neural circuitry formation and behaviour. Her overall goal is to determine how mutations in neuroligin and other synaptic-function-related genes, and dysfunction of the brain circuitry lead to autism.

JUSTL Programme

Dr Xu was a participant in the 2007 JUSTL programme. Her mentor was Prof George Augustine (currently at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), and in his summer laboratory at the MBL she learned a lot about his research on the release of neurotransmitters using the squid giant axon as a model. She is very appreciative of the opportunity Prof Augustine gave her to learn the basic techniques required to conduct electrophysiology on the squid axon. Specifically, she learned how to dissect the squid to obtain the giant axons, micro-inject dyes into the pre-synaptic terminal and set up an electrophysiology rig for sharp electrode recording. Dr Xu still uses electrophysiology today for part of her research. While she has lost touch with Prof Augustine, she still keeps in contact with his former laboratory members, including Dr Yulong Li, who is now a Principal Investigator at Peking University.

In addition to her work in the laboratory, Dr Xu also attended many of the Neurobiology course lectures and in her end-of-programme report she said that she learned a great deal from the course, from the most basic and fundamental information to the most advanced techniques and equipment currently used in neurobiology. Dr Xu especially remembers one lecture, given by Prof Guoping Feng (currently at McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), who studies the relationship between the brain circuitry and behaviour in a mouse model for psychiatric disease. Dr Xu recalls that she and Prof Feng had many in-depth talks and exchanged many ideas in neurobiology research and psychiatric disease. Since then, they have kept in close contact with each other and they now have a formal collaboration between their two laboratories.

Dr Xu describes her time on the JUSTL programme as being a “wonderful experience,” and she attributes her interest in brain circuitry and behaviour, and the use of mouse models to study autism, at least in part to her lengthy discussions with Prof Feng at the MBL.