Dr. Xiao Bing Gao

Biography

Fascinated by how the brain controls complex physiological functions and behaviors in higher animals, Xiao-Bing Gao pursued a career in neurobiology under the mentorship of renowned neurophysiologist Professor Te-Pei Feng at the Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Science, where he obtained his PhD in 1996. In the fall of that year, he joined Dr. Anthony van den Pol’s laboratory as a postdoctoral associate in the Section of Neurosurgery at Yale University School of Medicine. As a trained electrophysiologist, Dr. Gao's early research focused on investigating the modulation of activity in developing mature hypothalamic neurons using neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and neurotrophic factors. He is an investigator characterizing the cellular functions of neuropeptides such as hypocretin/orexin and melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) nerve cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Establishing an independent research group at Yale, his current research interests involve understanding the biological processes at molecular and cellular systems levels that lead to the emergence of physiological functions (such as energy balance and sleep/wake regulation) and complex behaviors crucial for animal survival, including reward-seeking/addiction and stress coping strategies. His group's major discoveries have provided evidence that experience-dependent neural plasticity in the neuronal systems of the lateral hypothalamus underlies the promotion of positive energy balance and maintenance of wakefulness and arousal, contributing to the development of insomnia, drug addiction, and obesity-associated behavioral changes in animals.

Research Interests