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Song-Hai Shi Ph.D.

Professor

1991-1996 Tsinghua University, China／B.S.

1996-2001 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory & State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA／Ph.D.

2001-2006 University of California at San Francisco & Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA／Postdoctoral Fellow

2006-2011 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA／Assistant Member

2006-2011 Weill Cornell Medical College, USA／Assistant Professor

2011-2015 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA／Associate Member／Member

2011-2015 Weill Cornell Medical College, USA／Associate Professor

2015-2019 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA／Member

2015-2019 Weill Cornell Medical College, USA／Professor

2019-present Weill Cornell Medical College & Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA／Adjunct Professor & Member

2019-present School of Life Sciences & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Tsinghua University／Professor & Director

Research interest

Development of the neocortex in the brain is considered to be the crowning achievement of evolution and likely holds the key to the superior mental prowess of humans. The ability of the neocortex to command all higher-order brain functions, such as sensory perception, language, conscious thought and reasoning, depends on the intricate circuitry comprised of a vast number of diverse neurons. Our research focuses on identifying the common commodities of neocortical circuits at both the structural and functional levels, and linking them with animal behaviors, with the ultimate goal of arriving at a circuit- and system-level understanding of neocortical operation and function under normal and disease conditions.

Selected publications

1. Yu, Y.-C., Bultje, R.S., Wang, X., and Shi, S.-H. (2009) Specific synapses develop preferentially among sister excitatory neurons in the neocortex. Nature 458: 501-504. (PMCID: PMC2727717)

2. Bultje, R.S., Castaneda-Castellanos, D.R., Jan, L.Y., Jan, Y.N., Kriegstein, A.R., and Shi, S.-H. (2009) Mammalian Par3 regulates progenitor cell asymmetric division via Notch signaling in the developing neocortex. Neuron 63: 189-202. (PMCID: PMC2736606)

3. Wang, X., Tsai, J.-W., Imai, J.H., Lin, W.-N., Valle, R.B., and Shi, S.-H. (2009) Asymmetric centrosome inheritance maintains neural progenitors in the neocortex. Nature 461: 947-955. (PMCID: PMC2764320)

4. Brown, K.N., Chen, S., Han, Z., Lu, C.-H., Tan, X., Ding, L., Zhang, X.-J., Cruz, A. L., Saur, D., Anderson, S.A., Huang, K., and Shi, S.-H. (2011) Clonal Production and Organization of Inhibitory Interneurons in the Neocortex. Science 334: 480-486. (PMCID: PMC3304494)

5. Yu, Y.-C., He, S., Chen, S., Fu, Y., Brown, K.N., Yao, X.H., Ma, J., Gao, K.P., Sosinsky, G.E., Huang, K., and Shi, S.-H. (2012) Preferential electric coupling regulates neocortical lineage-dependent microcircuit assembly. Nature 486:113-7. (PMCID: PMC3599787)

6. Xu, H.-T., Han Z., Gao, P., He, S., Li, Z., Shi, W., Kordish, O., Shao, W., Brown, K.N., Huang, K., and Shi. S-H. (2014) Lineage-dependent structural and functional organization of the hippocampus. Cell 157: 1552-1564. (PMCID: PMC4120073)

7. Insolera, R., Shao, W., Airik, R., Hildebrandt, F., and Shi, S.-H. (2014) SDCCAG8 regulates pericentriolar material recruitment and neuronal migration in the developing neocortex. Neuron 83: 805-822 (PMCID: PMC4141904)

8. Insolera, R., Bazzi, H., W. Shao, Anderson, K.V., and Shi, S.-H. (2014) Cortical neurogenesis in the absence of centrioles. Nat. Neurosci. 17:1528-1535 (PMCID: PMC4213237)

9. Gao, P., Postiglione Pia, M., Krieger, T.G., Hernandez, L., T., Wang, C., Han, Z., Streicher, C., Papusheva, E., Insolera, R., Chugh, K., Kodish, O., Huang, K., Simons, B.D., Luo, L., Hippenmeyer, S., and Shi, S.-H. (2014) Deterministic progenitor behavior and unitary production of neurons in the neocortex. Cell 159:775-788. (PMCID: PMC4225456)

10. He, S., Li, Z., Ge, S., Yu, Y.-C., and Shi, S.-H. (2015) Inside-out radial migration facilitates lineage-dependent microcircuit assembly in the neocortex. Neuron 86: 1159-1166. (PMCID: PMC4458701)

11. Shi, W., Xianyu, A., Han, Z., Tang, X., Li, Z., Zhong, H., Mao, T., Huang, K., and Shi, S.-H. (2017) Ontogenetic Establishment of Order-specific Nuclear Organization in the Mammalian Thalamus. Nat. Neurosci. 20: 516-528. (PMCID: PMC5374008)

12. Ren, S.-Q., Li, Z., Lin, S., Bergami, M., and Shi S.-H. (2019) Precise Long-range Microcircuit-to- Microcircuit Communication Connects the Frontal and Sensory Cortices in the Mammalian brain. Neuron 104: 385-401. (PMCID: PMC6813886)

13. Shao, W., Yang, J., Brendel, M., Lee, C.H., Z. Yang, Lin, S., Li, Z., Joyner, A.L., Anderson, K.V., Zhang, J., Tsou, M.-F., Shi, H., and Shi, S.-H. (2020) Centrosome Anchoring Regulates Mechanical Properties of Neural Progenitors and Cortical Formation. Nature 580: 106-112. (PMCID: PMC7138347)

14. Dong, X., Zhang, Q., Yu, X., Wang, D., Ma, J., Ma, J. and Shi, S.-H. (2022) Metabolic lactate production coordinates vasculature development and progenitor behavior in the developing mouse neocortex. Nat. Neurosci. 25(7): 865-875. (PMID: 35726058)

15. Lv, X., Li, S., Li, J., Yu, X.-Y., Ge, X., Li, B., Hu, S., Lin, Y., Zhang, S., Yang, J., Zhang, X., Yan, J., Joyner, A. L., Shi, H., Wu, Q., and Shi, S.-H. (2022) Patterned cPCDH expression regulates the fine organization of the neocortex. Nature 612(7940):503-511. (PMID: 36477535)

Awards

Runner-up, Breakthrough of the Year, Science (1999)

Amersham Biosciences and Science Prize for Young Scientists, Grand Prize (2001)

Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship (2002-2005)

Klingenstein Award (2007)

NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2008)

McKnight Scholar Award (2010)

Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists (2010)

The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, Finalist (2012)

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Scholar Award (2016)

Contact information

Tel: 010-62791995

E-mail：shisonghai@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

web：http://shis-lab.life.tsinghua.edu.cn/#/home