Xue Han

Dr. Xue Han is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. Her lab focuses on developing novel neurotechnologies with a goal of discovering the design principles for novel neuromodulation therapies. She has received a number of awards, including Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), NIH new innovator award, DARPA Young Faulty Award, Pew Scholarship, and Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.

Dr. Han will be leading a discussion on Multimodal Optical Analysis of Biological Neural Networks Across Scales. Neurological and psychiatric disorders affect about one billion people worldwide, and cost over $2.5 billion annually. Her lab is interested in understanding the neural circuit mechanisms of brain disorders, with an ultimate goal of deriving circuit principles for designing next generation neuromodulation therapies. In this talk, she will describe our recent effort on developing large scale, multi-color, calcium and voltage imaging techniques, which can be deployed in conjunction with precise optogenetic cell stimulation and silencing strategies. Additionally, she will describe novel microRNA based viral vector designs that allow targeted expression of optogenetic sensors and actuators to specific cell types in the brain, including genetically intractable species such as rats and humans. These technology development efforts enable her and her team to examine circuit dynamics within the cortical-basal ganglion networks that are relevant for Parkinson’s disease and deep brain stimulation therapies.