Liqun Luo, Ph.D.

Professor, Stanford University

SFARI Investigator, SFARI Scientific Review Board Website

Liqun Luo is a professor at Stanford University and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Luo’s laboratory is interested in understanding how neuronal circuits are precisely wired during development and how this organizational precision allows the processing and production of complex information. His group studies neural circuits in both fruit flies and mice using a combination of molecular genetic, viral, physiological and behavioral techniques.

Funded Projects

Neurobiology of RAI1, a critical gene for syndromic autism spectrum disorders

Awarded: 2015
Award Type: Research

Neurobiology of RAI1, the causal gene for Smith-Magenis syndrome

Awarded: 2011
Award Type: Research

SFARI Funded Publications

Loss of the neural-specific BAF subunit ACTL6B relieves repression of early response genes and causes recessive autism. Wenderski W., Wang L., Krokhotin A., Walsh J.J., Li H., Shoji H., Ghosh S., George R.D., Miller E.L., Elias L., Gillespie M.A., Son E.Y., Staahl B.T., Baek S.T., Stanley V., Moncada C., Shipony Z., Linker S.B., Marchetto M.C.N., Gage F.H., Chen D., Sultan T., Zaki M.S., Ranish J.A., Miyakawa T., Luo L., Malenka R., Crabtree G., Gleeson J.

Research Highlight

Early adolescent Rai1 reactivation reverses transcriptional and social interaction deficits in a mouse model of Smith-Magenis syndrome. Huang W.H., Wang D.C., Allen W.E., Klope M., Hu H., Shamloo M., Luo L.

Gating of social reward by oxytocin in the ventral tegmental area. Hung, L.W., Neuner, S., Polepalli, J.S., Beier, K.T., Wright, M., Walsh, J.J., Lewis, E.M., Luo L., Deisseroth K., Dolen, G., Malenka R.

Research Highlight