
Bio:
Shenqin Yao joined the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2015 as a scientist in the research and development group. Her role will focus on the development and optimization of novel molecular genetic tools, in an effort to understand the neural connectivity of the mouse brain. She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics with Phillip Beachy at the Johns Hopkins University, where she identified novel signaling molecules that govern embryogenesis and adult tissue homeostasis via genome-wide screening in cultured cells. Prior to joining the Allen Institute, she received postdoctoral training and worked as a staff scientist with Catherine Dulac at Harvard University. There, she studied neural circuits underlying mouse social recognition using advanced molecular, genetic and behavioral approaches.
Research Focus:
My research interest is to understand the molecular basis of neural circuitry that translates sensory inputs into behavioral outputs. At the Allen Institute, I will contribute to the development of viral vector tools that enable us to mark and trace the connectivities from molecularly defined populations of neurons. On the basis of anatomical dissection of circuit connectivity, I will also develop tools that will allow functional perturbation of distinct circuit components by combining genetic engineering with optogenetics and chemogenetics. Development and optimization of the above tools will facilitate the ongoing effort of the Allen Institute in characterizing different cell types in the brain and understanding the nature of the connections between cells of various types.News & Events
Publications
eLife
Rabies virus-based barcoded neuroanatomy resolved by single-cell RNA and in situ sequencing
Feb 06, 2024
Aixin Zhang, Lei Jin, Shenqin Yao, Makoto Matsuyama, Cindy T. J. van Velthoven, Heather Anne Sullivan, Na Sun, Manolis Kellis, Bosiljka Tasic, Ian Wickersham, Xiaoyin Chen
Read MoreScience (New York, N.Y.)
Signature morphoelectric properties of diverse GABAergic interneurons in the human neocortex
Oct 13, 2023
Brian R. Lee, Rachel Dalley, Jeremy A. Miller, Thomas Chartrand, Jennie Close, Rusty Mann, Alice Mukora, Lindsay Ng, Lauren Alfiler, Katherine Baker, Darren Bertagnolli, Krissy Brouner, Tamara Casper, Eva Csajbok, Nicholas Donadio, Stan L. W. Driessens, Tom Egdorf, Rachel Enstrom, Anna A. Galakhova, Amanda Gary, Emily Gelfand, Jeff Goldy, Kristen Hadley, Tim S. Heistek, Dijon Hill, Wen-Hsien Hou, Nelson Johansen, Nik Jorstad, Lisa Kim, Agnes Katalin Kocsis, Lauren Kruse, Michael Kunst, Gabriela León, Brian Long, Matthew Mallory, Michelle Maxwell, Medea McGraw, Delissa McMillen, Erica J. Melief, Gabor Molnar, Marty T. Mortrud, Dakota Newman, Julie Nyhus, Ximena Opitz-Araya, Attila Ozsvár, Trangthanh Pham, Alice Pom, Lydia Potekhina, Ram Rajanbabu, Augustin Ruiz, Susan M. Sunkin, Ildikó Szöts, Naz Taskin, Bargavi Thyagarajan, Michael Tieu, Jessica Trinh, Sara Vargas, David Vumbaco, Femke Waleboer, Sarah Walling-Bell, Natalie Weed, Grace Williams, Julia Wilson, Shenqin Yao, Thomas Zhou, Pál Barzó, Trygve Bakken, Charles Cobbs, Nick Dee, Richard G. Ellenbogen, Luke Esposito, Manuel Ferreira, Nathan W. Gouwens, Benjamin Grannan, Ryder P. Gwinn, Jason S. Hauptman, Rebecca Hodge, Tim Jarsky, C. Dirk Keene, Andrew L. Ko, Anders Rosendal Korshoej, Boaz P. Levi, Kaare Meier, Jeffrey G. Ojemann, Anoop Patel, Jacob Ruzevick, Daniel L. Silbergeld, Kimberly Smith, Jens Christian Sørensen, Jack Waters, Hongkui Zeng, Jim Berg, Marco Capogna, Natalia A. Goriounova, Brian Kalmbach, Christiaan P. J. de Kock, Huib D. Mansvelder, Staci A. Sorensen, Gabor Tamas, Ed S. Lein, Jonathan T. Ting
Read MoreNature Methods
Linking connectome with transcriptome using a self-inactivating rabies virus
Apr 01, 2023
Shenqin Yao, Boaz P. Levi
Read MoreCell Reports
Regional and cell-type-specific afferent and efferent projections of the mouse claustrum
Feb 11, 2023
Quanxin Wang, Yun Wang, Hsien-Chi Kuo, Peng Xie, Xiuli Kuang, Karla E. Hirokawa, Maitham Naeemi, Shenqin Yao, Matt Mallory, Ben Ouellette, Phil Lesnar, Yaoyao Li, Min Ye, Chao Chen, Wei Xiong, Leila Ahmadinia, Laila El-Hifnawi, Ali Cetin, Staci A. Sorensen, Julie A. Harris, Hongkui Zeng, Christof Koch
Read MoreNature Neuroscience
A whole-brain monosynaptic input connectome to neuron classes in mouse visual cortex
Feb 01, 2023
Shenqin Yao, Quanxin Wang, Karla E. Hirokawa, Benjamin Ouellette, Ruweida Ahmed, Jasmin Bomben, Krissy Brouner, Linzy Casal, Shiella Caldejon, Andy Cho, Nadezhda I. Dotson, Tanya L. Daigle, Tom Egdorf, Rachel Enstrom, Amanda Gary, Emily Gelfand, Melissa Gorham, Fiona Griffin, Hong Gu, Nicole Hancock, Robert Howard, Leonard Kuan, Sophie Lambert, Eric Kenji Lee, Jennifer Luviano, Kyla Mace, Michelle Maxwell, Marty T. Mortrud, Maitham Naeemi, Chelsea Nayan, Nhan-Kiet Ngo, Thuyanh Nguyen, Kat North, Shea Ransford, Augustin Ruiz, Sam Seid, Jackie Swapp, Michael J. Taormina, Wayne Wakeman, Thomas Zhou, Philip R. Nicovich, Ali Williford, Lydia Potekhina, Medea McGraw, Lydia Ng, Peter A. Groblewski, Bosiljka Tasic, Stefan Mihalas, Julie A. Harris, Ali Cetin, Hongkui Zeng
Read MoreNeuron
Cardiovascular baroreflex circuit moonlights in sleep control
Sep 23, 2022
Yuanyuan Yao, Zeke Barger, Mohammad Saffari Doost, Chak Foon Tso, Dana Darmohray, Daniel Silverman, Danqian Liu, Chenyan Ma, Ali Cetin, Shenqin Yao, Hongkui Zeng, Yang Dan
Read MoreScience (New York, N.Y.)
Dense functional and molecular readout of a circuit hub in sensory cortex
Jan 07, 2022
Cameron Condylis, Abed Ghanbari, Nikita Manjrekar, Karina Bistrong, Shenqin Yao, Zizhen Yao, Thuc Nghi Nguyen, Hongkui Zeng, Bosiljka Tasic, Jerry L. Chen
Read MoreNature
Cellular anatomy of the mouse primary motor cortex
Oct 01, 2021
Rodrigo Muñoz-Castañeda, Brian Zingg, Katherine S. Matho, Xiaoyin Chen, Quanxin Wang, Nicholas N. Foster, Anan Li, Arun Narasimhan, Karla E. Hirokawa, Bingxing Huo, Samik Bannerjee, Laura Korobkova, Chris Sin Park, Young-Gyun Park, Michael S. Bienkowski, Uree Chon, Diek W. Wheeler, Xiangning Li, Yun Wang, Maitham Naeemi, Peng Xie, Lijuan Liu, Kathleen Kelly, Xu An, Sarojini M. Attili, Ian Bowman, Anastasiia Bludova, Ali Cetin, Liya Ding, Rhonda Drewes, Florence D'Orazi, Corey Elowsky, Stephan Fischer, William Galbavy, Lei Gao, Jesse Gillis, Peter A. Groblewski, Lin Gou, Joel D. Hahn, Joshua T. Hatfield, Houri Hintiryan, Junxiang Jason Huang, Hideki Kondo, Xiuli Kuang, Philip Lesnar, Xu Li, Yaoyao Li, Mengkuan Lin, Darrick Lo, Judith Mizrachi, Stephanie Mok, Philip R. Nicovich, Ramesh Palaniswamy, Jason Palmer, Xiaoli Qi, Elise Shen, Yu-Chi Sun, Huizhong W. Tao, Wayne Wakemen, Yimin Wang, Shenqin Yao, Jing Yuan, Huiqing Zhan, Muye Zhu, Lydia Ng, Li I. Zhang, Byung Kook Lim, Michael Hawrylycz, Hui Gong, James C. Gee, Yongsoo Kim, Kwanghun Chung, X. William Yang, Hanchuan Peng, Qingming Luo, Partha P. Mitra, Anthony M. Zador, Hongkui Zeng, Giorgio A. Ascoli, Z. Josh Huang, Pavel Osten, Julie A. Harris, Hong-Wei Dong
Read MoreNeuron
Enhancer viruses for combinatorial cell-subclass-specific labeling
May 05, 2021
Lucas T. Graybuck, Tanya L. Daigle, Adriana E. Sedeño-Cortés, Miranda Walker, Brian Kalmbach, Garreck H. Lenz, Elyse Morin, Thuc Nghi Nguyen, Emma Garren, Jacqueline L. Bendrick, Tae Kyung Kim, Thomas Zhou, Marty Mortrud, Shenqin Yao, La' Akea Siverts, Rachael Larsen, Bryan B. Gore, Eric R. Szelenyi, Cameron Trader, Pooja Balaram, Cindy T. J. van Velthoven, Megan Chiang, John K. Mich, Nick Dee, Jeff Goldy, Ali H. Cetin, Kimberly Smith, Sharon W. Way, Luke Esposito, Zizhen Yao, Viviana Gradinaru, Susan M. Sunkin, Ed Lein, Boaz P. Levi, Jonathan T. Ting, Hongkui Zeng, Bosiljka Tasic
Read MoreCell Reports
Functional enhancer elements drive subclass-selective expression from mouse to primate neocortex
Mar 30, 2021
John K. Mich, Lucas T. Graybuck, Erik E. Hess, Joseph T. Mahoney, Yoshiko Kojima, Yi Ding, Saroja Somasundaram, Jeremy A. Miller, Brian E. Kalmbach, Cristina Radaelli, Bryan B. Gore, Natalie Weed, Victoria Omstead, Yemeserach Bishaw, Nadiya V. Shapovalova, Refugio A. Martinez, Olivia Fong, Shenqin Yao, Marty Mortrud, Peter Chong, Luke Loftus, Darren Bertagnolli, Jeff Goldy, Tamara Casper, Nick Dee, Ximena Opitz-Araya, Ali Cetin, Kimberly A. Smith, Ryder P. Gwinn, Charles Cobbs, Andrew L. Ko, Jeffrey G. Ojemann, C. Dirk Keene, Daniel L. Silbergeld, Susan M. Sunkin, Viviana Gradinaru, Gregory D. Horwitz, Hongkui Zeng, Bosiljka Tasic, Ed S. Lein, Jonathan T. Ting, Boaz P. Levi
Read MoreNature Methods
RecV recombinase system for in vivo targeted optogenomic modifications of single cells or cell populations
Apr 01, 2020
Shenqin Yao, Peng Yuan, Ben Ouellette, Thomas Zhou, Marty Mortrud, Pooja Balaram, Soumya Chatterjee, Yun Wang, Tanya L. Daigle, Bosiljka Tasic, Xiuli Kuang, Hui Gong, Qingming Luo, Shaoqun Zeng, Andrew Curtright, Ajay Dhaka, Anat Kahan, Viviana Gradinaru, Radosław Chrapkiewicz, Mark Schnitzer, Hongkui Zeng, Ali Cetin
Read MoreProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Connectional architecture of a mouse hypothalamic circuit node controlling social behavior
Apr 09, 2019
Liching Lo, Shenqin Yao, Dong-Wook Kim, Ali Cetin, Julie Harris, Hongkui Zeng, David J. Anderson, Brandon Weissbourd
Read MoreNature Neuroscience
Nontoxic, double-deletion-mutant rabies viral vectors for retrograde targeting of projection neurons
Apr 01, 2018
Soumya Chatterjee, Heather A. Sullivan, Bryan J. MacLennan, Ran Xu, YuanYuan Hou, Thomas K. Lavin, Nicholas E. Lea, Jacob E. Michalski, Kelsey R. Babcock, Stephan Dietrich, Gillian A. Matthews, Anna Beyeler, Gwendolyn G. Calhoon, Gordon Glober, Jennifer D. Whitesell, Shenqin Yao, Ali Cetin, Julie A. Harris, Hongkui Zeng, Kay M. Tye, R. Clay Reid, Ian R. Wickersham
Read MoreNature
Identification of preoptic sleep neurons using retrograde labelling and gene profiling
May 25, 2017
Shinjae Chung, Franz Weber, Peng Zhong, Chan Lek Tan, Thuc Nghi Nguyen, Kevin T. Beier, Nikolai Hörmann, Wei-Cheng Chang, Zhe Zhang, Johnny Phong Do, Shenqin Yao, Michael J. Krashes, Bosiljka Tasic, Ali Cetin, Hongkui Zeng, Zachary A. Knight, Liqun Luo, Yang Dan
Read More