Mingrui Zhao, PhD
Mingrui Zhao is an Associate Professor of Research in Neuroscience in the Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute. He obtained his PhD in Neuropharmacology from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in China. His postdoctoral trainings were done in Dr. Tracey Shors’s lab at Rutgers, Dr. Bai Lu’s lab at NICHD, and Dr. Theodore Schwartz’s lab at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Zhao’s previous research focused on optical brain mapping in epilepsy, the neocortical microcircuitry in epilepsy, and the neurovascular coupling mechanisms of neurological diseases.
His current research interest is in applying cutting edge electrophysiological and imaging methods to study molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease including Aß-induced aberrant neuronal activity, the miscommunications between neurons and microglia, modulation of gamma oscillations, and the imaging of neurotransmitter and neuromodulator dynamics using genetically encoded indicators.
Research Interests: How neuron and microglia functions are altered in Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy
Hobbies: Reading and Chinese martial arts
