Focusing on brain circuits with an emphasis on how memory is formed and maintained
Dr. Guo graduated from the department of Engineering Mechanics of Tsinghua University in 2002 with a bachelor degree in science, and in 2004 with a master degree in solid mechanics. In 2004, he graduated from Harvard University with a PhD degree in Applied Mathematics. From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Guo worked as a postdoctoral associate under the supervision of Karel Svoboda at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus. Since 2015, Dr. Guo is an associate professor in the School of Medicine and a principal investigator in Tsinghua-PKU joint center for life science and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Science at Tsinghua University. He was rolled in the 1000 Young’s talent program of China.
His research focuses on understanding the role of the multiregional brain network in cognitive functions such as working memory. As the first or corresponding author, he has published a series of high profile papers in Nature, Nature Methods, Neuron (3) and PNAS.
The formation and maintenance of working memory
One major focus of the Guo lab is the neural mechanism of working memory. By combining optogenetic perturbations, multichannel recording, two photon imaging and quantitative mouse behavior, the lab studies how a multi-areal network generates and maintains working memory. Furthermore, the lab is also interested in developing cutting edge whole-brain imaging tools to efficiently map the projectome of neurons involved in working memory
In July of 2020, the Guo group published ‘Mapping functional connectivity from the dorsal cortex to the thalamus’ in Neuron, reporting a high throughput method to map functional connectivity of distinct areas at single neuron resolution. Using the approach, the group studied the functional connectivity from the dorsal cortex to almost every thalamic nuclei, found that each cortical region had distinct causal contribution to thalamic activity, and demonstrated the cortex-thalamus-cortex pathways in information processing. In Aug of 2021, the group published ‘A Cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical Channel Underlying Short-term Memory’ in Neuron. Short-term memory (STM) related neural activity is distributed in multiple brain areas. How these brain areas interact to generate selective activity remains poorly understood. The study revealed that the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop promoted selective activity underlying STM.
1.Y Wang, X Yin, Z. Zhang, J. Li, W. Zhao and ZV Guo. A cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical channel underlying short-term memory. Neuron, 2021.
2.Y Huo, H Chen and ZV Guo. Mapping functional connectivity from the dorsal cortex to the thalamus. Neuron, 2020. 107, 1080-1094.
3.ZV Guo, HK Inagaki, K Daie, S Druckmann, CR Gerfen and K Svoboda. Maintenance of persistent activity in a frontal thalamocortical loop. Nature. 2017. 545, 181-186.
4.ZV Guo, N Li, D Huber, E Ophir, D Gutnisky, JT Ting, G Feng and K Svoboda. Flow of cortical activity underlying a tactile decision in mice. Neuron. 2014, 81, 179-94.
5.ZV Guo, AC Hart and S Ramanathan. Optical interrogation of neural circuits in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature Methods. 2009, 6, 891-896.
6.ZV Guo and L Mahadevan. Limbless undulatory propulsion on land. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2008, 105(9), 3179-3184.
