Xue Han, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Han Lab

Ph.D. Physiology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.S. Biophysics, Beijing University, China

Phone: (617) 358-6189
Office: ERB 521
Office hours: By appointment
Email: xuehan@bu.edu

Research Interests

Neurotechnology, optical neural modulation, optogenetics, neural prosthetics, neural network dynamics, brain rhythms, neurological and psychiatric diseases, cognition.

Current Research

Brain disorders represent the biggest unmet medical need, with many disorders being untreatable, and most treatments presenting serious side effects. Accordingly, we are discovering design principles for novel neuromodulation therapies. We invent and apply a variety of genetic, molecular, pharmacological, optical, and electrical tools to correct neural circuits that go awry within the brain. As an example, we have pioneered several technologies for silencing specific cells in the brain using pulses of light. We have also recently participated the first pre-clinical testing of a novel neurotechnology, optical neural modulation. Using these novel neurotechnologies and classical ones such as deep brain stimulation (DBS), we modulate the function of neural circuits to establish causal links between neural dynamics and behavioral phenomena (e.g., movement, attention, memory, and decision making). One of our current interests is the investigation of how neural synchrony arises within and across brain regions, and how synchronous activity contributes to normal cognition and pathology.

Selected Recent Publications

Chow BY*, Han X*, Dobry AS, Qian X, Chuong AS, Li M, Henninger MA, Belfort GM, Lin Y, Monahan PE, Boyden ES (*co-first authors) “High-performance genetically targetable optical neural silencing by light-driven proton pumps” Nature. 463:98-102. (2010)

Han X, Xian SX, Moore T “Dynamic sensitivity of area V4 neurons during saccade preparation” PNAS. 106 (31): 13046-51. (2009)

Han X, Qian X, Bernstein JG, Zhou H, Franzesi GT, Stern P, Bronson RT, Graybiel AM, Desimone R, and Boyden ES “Millisecond-Timescale Optical Control of Neural Dynamics in the Nonhuman Primate Brain” Neuron. 62 (2): 191-8. (2009)

Han X, Qian X, Stern P, Chuong A, Boyden ES “Informational lesions: optical perturbation of spike timing and neural synchrony via microbial opsin gene fusions” Front. Mol. Neurosci. 2, 12. (2009)

Han X, Boyden ES “Multiple-color optical activation, silencing, and desynchronization of neural activity, with single-spike temporal resolution” PLoS ONE. 2 (3): e299. (2007)

Han X, Wang CT, Bai J, Chapman ER, Jackson MB “Transmembrane segments of syntaxin line the fusion pore of Ca2+-triggered exocytosis” Science. 304 (5668): 289-92. (2004)