I am a neuroscientist working as a postdoctoral fellow at Scripps Research/HHMI, supervised by Li Ye. My PhD research focuses on the neural circuit mechanisms underlying the cognitive regulation of feeding behavior, alongside the development of novel computational and experimental tools for analyzing neural activity and behavior. My broader academic interest lies in integrating approaches from neurobiology and computational modeling to explore how the brain supports complex behavior and cognitive functions.

Prior to Scripps, I completed my undergraduate studies in Biological Science at Tsinghua University, China. My undergrad thesis was advised by Yi Zhong, focusing on the cortical circuits for observational learning in mice.

Outside the lab, I enjoy birding, photographing, playing table tennis, and playing Chinese flute (and I am teaching myself piano now!). I'm also an ameteur in the entomology and taxonomy of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies).

A deep learning pipeline for 3D brain-wide mapping of local neuronal ensembles in tera-voxel light sheet microscopy
Attarpour A, Osmann J, Rinaldi A, Qi T, Lal N, Patel S, Rozak M, Yu F, Cho N, Squair J, McLaurin J, Raffiee M, Deisseroth K, Courtine G, Ye L, Stefanovic B, Goubran M.
Nature Methods (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s41592-024-02583-1.

Massively parallel in vivo Perturb-seq reveals cell-type-specific transcriptional networks in cortical development
Zheng X, Wu B, Liu Y, Simmons SK, Kim K, Clarke GS, Ashiq A, Park J, Li J, Wang Z, Tong L, Wang Q, Rajamani KT, Muñoz-Castañeda R, Mu S, Qi T, Zhang Y, Ngiam ZC, Ohte N, Hanashima C, Wu Z, Xu X, Levin JZ, Jin X.
Cell (2024). doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.04.050.

Phosphorylation of pyruvate dehydrogenase inversely associates with neuronal activity
Yang D*, Wang Y*, Qi T*, Zhang X, Shen L, Ma J, Pang Z, Lal NK, McClatchy DB, Seradj SH, Leung VH, Wang K, Xie Y, Polli FS, Maximov A, Gonzalez OC, de Lecea L, Augustine V, Cline HT, Yates JR, Ye L.
Neuron (2024). doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2023.12.015.

Vagal sensory neurons mediate the Bezold-Jarisch reflex and induce syncope
Lovelace J*, Ma J*, Yadav S, Chhabria K, Shen H, Pang Z, Qi T, Sehgal R, Zhang Y, Bali T, Vaissiere T, Tan S, Liu Y, Rumbaugh G, Ye L, Kleinfeld D, Stringer C, Augustine V.
Nature (2023). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06680-7.

Xiphoid nucleus of the midline thalamus controls cold-induced food seeking
Lal NK, Le P, Aggarwal S, Zhang A, Wang K, Qi T, Pang Z, Yang D, Nudell V, Yeo GW, Banks AS, Ye L.
Nature (2023). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06430-9.

As a neuroscientist, I have a broad curiosity for all areas of the natural sciences, ranging from mathematics and physics to psychology and computer science. Occasionally, I write notes on these topics, aiming to explain mathematical principles from a more intuitive perspective. You can explore some of my notes here (all written in Chinese).