Song-Hai Shi Ph.D.

Professor
Director of IDG-McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Tsinghua University
Beijing Municipal Outstanding Young Scientist

Main Research Fields

Neocortical development 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. Shao W, Yang J, He M, Yu X.-Y., Lee, C.H., Yang, Z., Joyner, A.L., Anderson, K. V., Zhang, J., Tsou, M.B., Shi, H., and Shi, S.-H. (2020) Centrosome anchoring regulates progenitor properties and cortical formation. Nature, 580:106-112.

2. 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,104:1-17.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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(7237):501-504.