Wei Zhang Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
2000-2004 School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, China B.S.
2004-2010 Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Ph.D.
2010-2016 Department of Physiology, University of California San Francisco, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellow
2017— Present School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University Principal Investigator
Peking-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences
IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Tsinghua University
Research interest
Brain-organ communications are controlled by complex neural and hormonal systems, and play a crucial role in maintaining the body's physiological and psychological homeostasis. Bodily sensation, or interoception not only extensively participates in the regulation of instinct behaviors, but also affects higher-order cognitive functions such as memory, emotion, and self-awareness. Our lab adopts the bottom-up pipeline of "Biophysics of Receptors - Cell Biology of Neurons - Functionality of Neural Circuits - Animal Behaviors" to explore the molecular and neural mechanisms of interoception. We also conduct multidimensional research on bidirectional nerve-organ communication and physiological regulation.
Selected publications
1. Yinjun Jia#，Bowen Gao#，Jiaxin Tan#，Jiqing Zheng#，Xin Hong，Wenyu Zhu ，Haichuan Tan，Yuan Xiao，Liping Tan，Hongyi Cai，Yanwen Huang，Zhiheng Deng，Xiangwei Wu，Yue Jin，Yafei Yuan，Jiekang Tian，Wei He，Weiying Ma，Yaqin Zhang，Lei Liu*，Chuangye Yan*，Wei Zhang*，Yanyan Lan*.Deep contrastive learning enables genome-wide virtual screening. Science.2026
2. Kexin Li#，Yue Jin#，Ting Liu, Hongkun Shan，Yi Lin，Wei Zhang*. Brain-gonad axes harmonize male mating drive and reproductive strategy via steroid hormones.Nature Communications.2025.
3. YanyanShi*，Yinjun Jia，Wei Zhang*. Molecular and neural basis of vomiting behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. Science Advances. 2025
4. Chenxi Liu*, Ning Tian, Pei Chang, Wei Zhang*. Mating reconciles fitness and fecundity by switching diet preference in flies. Nature Communications.2024.
5. Jierui Qin, Tingting Yang, Kexin Li，Ting Liu, Wei Zhang*. Pharyngeal mechanosensory neurons control food swallow in Drosophila melanogaster. eLife,2024.
6. Jie Yu, Xuan Guo, Shen Zheng, Wei Zhang*. A dedicate sensorimotor circuit enables fine texture discrimination by active touch. Plos Genetics.2023
7. Chenxi Liu*, Wei Zhang*. Molecular basis of somatosensation in insects. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 2022.
8. Yinjun Jia*, Shuaishuai Li, Xuan Guo, Bo Lei, Junqiang Hu, Xiao-Hong Xu, Wei Zhang*. Selfee, self-supervised features extraction of animal behaviors. eLife, 2022.
9. Liwei Zhang*#, Xuan Guo*#, Wei Zhang*. Nutrients and pheromones promote insulin release to inhibit courtship drive. Science Advances. 2022
10. Tingting Yang, Zixuan Yuan, Chenxi Liu, Ting Liu, Wei Zhang*. A neural circuit integrates pharyngeal sensation to control feeding. Cell Reports. 2021.
11. Rui Luo, Yuxiang Zhang, Yinjun Jia, Yan Zhang, Zongyang Li, Jieqing Zhao, Ting Liu, Wei Zhang*. Molecular basis and homeostatic regulation of Zinc taste. Protein & Cell. 2021.
12. Pingping Wang, Yinjun Jia, Ting Liu, Yuh-Nung Jan*, Wei Zhang*. Visceral Mechano-sensing Neurons Control Drosophila Feeding by Using Piezo as a Sensor. Neuron. 2020.
13. Chenxi Liu, Bei Zhang, Liwei Zhang, Tingting Yang, Zhewei Zhang, Zihua Gao. Wei Zhang*.A neural circuit encoding mating states tunes defensive behavior in Drosophila. Nature Communications. 2020.
14. Liwei Zhang#*, Jie Yu#, Xuan Guo, Jianhua Wei, Ting Liu, Wei Zhang*. Parallel mechanosensory pathways direct oviposition decision of Drosophila. Current Biology. 2020.
15. Yawen Li#, Yufei Hu#, Jiawei Wang, Xin Liu*, Wei Zhang*; Linfeng Sun*. Structural Insights into a Plant Mechanosensitive Ion Channel MSL1. Cell Reports. 2020.
Contact information
Tel: +86-10-62790589
E-mail: weizhang0505@126.com
