Yangyang Wang
Brandeis University, MA·Neuroscience
Breathing has to adjust constantly to the body's needs. Its rhythm comes from a small brainstem network called the preBötzinger Complex (preBötC), which drives each inhaled breath.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Mathematics & Statistics
Physiology
- Topics
preBötzinger complex
preBötC
respiratory rhythm
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Identify how inhibitory neuromodulation by opioids changes the dynamics and properties of glutamatergic synapses in the preBötzinger Complex, the brainstem network that drives inhaled breaths.
- Dissect how the excitatory neuromodulator norepinephrine regulates respiratory network dynamics by changing both neurons' intrinsic electrical properties and their synaptic properties.
- Test whether reversing the temporal order of opposing neuromodulators produces different network states, combining electrophysiology and computational models with dynamical systems analysis of bifurcations and bistability.
More about the research
Chemical messengers called neuromodulators change how this network's neurons and synapses (the connections between neurons) behave. Some, such as opioids, slow breathing, while others, such as norepinephrine, speed it up. Experiments alone struggle to explain how these opposing signals interact.
Why it matters
Opioids act on neuromodulator receptors throughout the brain, and their addictive nature drives the ongoing opioid epidemic in the U.S. Opioids can also suppress breathing. Understanding how the order of opposing neuromodulators shapes the breathing network may inform the brain basis of behaviors linked to opioid use disorder.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Christopher Del Negro
William & Mary, VA·Neuroscience
Test whether inhibitory GABAergic neurons of the central amygdala connect directly to excitatory breathing-rhythm neurons in the preBötzinger complex, using light-activated (optogenetic) proteins in VgatCre mice and recordings from brainstem slices.
Horacio Rotstein
New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ·Neuroscience
Build biophysical computational models of the hippocampal CA1 network that include neurons' intrinsic subthreshold oscillatory properties and medial septum input, and test whether they reproduce theta-frequency local field potential oscillations.
Eve E Marder
Brandeis University, MA·Neuroscience
Determine how long-term temperature acclimation affects resilience of the crab stomatogastric ganglion pyloric rhythm, a repeating motor pattern, by recording motor patterns and neuromuscular junctions across temperatures and with neuromodulators.
The school
Brandeis University: 5 labs on PI Pages, $107M a year on research, 75 research doctorates a year.
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