Time: 14:00-15:30 on Mon.,Oct.30, 2023

Venue：E303,Biomedicine Hall

Speaker: Dr.Qiancheng Zhao

Host: Dr.Bailong Xiao

Title: Making sense of the internal senses: a multidimensional coding architecture of the vagal interoceptive system

Abstract：

Understanding our body's internal state is a fundamental, life-ensuring process, vital for maintaining physiological homeostasis, fueling our motivations, and shaping our thoughts and emotions. At the core of this intricate body-brain connection lies the vagal interoceptive system, a crucial axis responsible for transmitting a large variety of signals from the respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and immune systems to the brainstem. However, how the vagal interoceptive system is organized to present numerous and diverse body signals to the brain remains shrouded in mystery. In this talk, I will illustrate how we leverage multiple powerful techniques we have developed, including a novel multiplexed barcoding system for single-cell RNA-seq approach ('Projection-seq') and spatial transcriptomics-coupled in vivo calcium imaging in the vagal ganglion ('vCatFISH'), to systematically dissect the vagal interoceptive system and generate a genetic and functional 'Google Map' of this key system. Most significantly, our study highlights a novel multidimensional coding architecture of the mammalian vagal interoceptive system for effective body-to-brain signal communication.

Biography：

Qiancheng Zhao earned his B.S. in pharmaceutical sciences from Shandong University, China, in 2012. He subsequently joined Dr. Bailong Xiao’s lab at Tsinghua University, where his research centered on the structural and functional study of mechanosensitive Piezo channels. Following this, Dr. Zhao joined Dr. Rui Chang’s lab at the Yale School of Medicine in April 2018 to investigate the internal sensation through the vagus nerve.