Hongkui Zeng, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President, Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science

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Bio:

Hongkui Zeng joined the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2006 and became Executive Vice President Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2020. From 2016 to 2020, she led the Structured Science Division to develop and operate high-throughput pipelines to generate large-scale, open-access datasets and tools to accelerate neuroscience discovery. Since joining the Allen Institute, she has also led several research programs, including the Transgenic Technology program, the Human Cortex Gene Survey project, the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas project, and the Mouse Cell Types and Connectivity program. Zeng received her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from Brandeis University, where she studied the molecular mechanisms of the circadian clock in fruit flies. Then as a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she studied the molecular and synaptic mechanisms underlying hippocampus-dependent plasticity and learning. Her current research interests are in understanding neuronal diversity and connectivity in the mouse visual cortical circuit and how different neuronal types work together to process and transform visual information. She has broad scientific experience and a keen interest in using a combined molecular, anatomical and physiological approach to unravel mechanisms of brain circuitry and potential means for treating brain diseases.

Research Focus:

The brain circuit is an intricately interconnected network of a vast number of neurons with diverse molecular, anatomical and physiological properties. To understand the principles of information processing in the brain circuit, it is essential to have a systematic understanding of the common and unique properties for each of its components - the neuronal cell types, to monitor their activities while the brain is processing information, and to have the ability to manipulate these neurons to investigate their functions in the brain circuit. Combining genetic tools with large-scale imaging and single-cell analysis technologies presents us with the opportunity to gain systematic understanding of the properties, interconnections and functions of these cell types. My team at the Allen Institute for Brain Science has been building multiple platforms, including single-cell transcriptomics, single and multi-patching electrophysiology, 3D reconstruction of neuronal morphology, high throughput brain-wide connectivity mapping, neuronal activity imaging, and cell type-targeted transgenic and viral to characterize the transcriptomic, physiological, morphological, and connectional properties of different types of neurons in a standardized way, towards a taxonomy of cell types and a description of their connectivity matrix for mouse brain circuits such as the visual cortico-thalamic system. Building such a knowledge base lays the foundation towards the understanding of the computational mechanisms of brain circuit function.

News & Events

News

An ultra detailed map of the brain region that controls movement, from mice to monkeys to humans

10.06.2021

Hundreds of neuroscientists built a ‘parts list’ of the motor cortex, laying groundwork to map the whole brain and better understand brain disease...

Human brain cell type diversity in the primary motor cortex, the region of the brain that controls movement. These data were generated using a technique known as single-cell transcriptomics to capture the full suite of genes switched on in each brain cell.

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Mapping the whole human brain: Allen Institute to lead global collaboration

09.22.2022

NIH BRAIN Initiative to fund primate brain atlases, maps of developing mouse brain, coordination and knowledge sharing, and brain function research

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Lab Notes | Cracking the code of addiction

10.13.2022

Neuroscientists at the Allen Institute and the University of North Carolina are working to crack the biology of reward and addiction. Hear about their...

Asian female wearing a blue sweater sitting in a laboratory

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Allen Institute's Hongkui Zeng, Ph.D., receives prestigious Pradel Research Award from National Academy of Sciences

01.23.2023

Hongkui's work has transformed our understanding of the brain. Her bold leadership of a large-scale project to define all the different types of cells...

Six brains showing cells types in various colors

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Landmark atlases flag 5,000 cell types across mouse brain

04.06.2023

In an effort spanning more than 10 years, and using different approaches, two teams of researchers each identified about 5,000 distinct clusters that...

Hongkui Zeng seated a desk at a computer

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Hongkui Zeng elected to the National Academy of Sciences

05.02.2023

Zeng was chosen for her contributions to understanding the cells and connections of the brain.

Hongkui Zeng, Ph.D.

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