Yuanyi Feng, PhD

Assistant Professor of Neurology and Center for Genetic Medicine
Feinberg School of Medicine

Research Interests:
Dr. Feng’s lab is interested in the fundamental mechanisms controlling development of the cerebral cortex. As the structure responsible for intellectual activities, the cerebral cortex in human is composed of a sheet of approximately 10 billion neurons organized in 6 layers. The logarithmic expansion of the neuronal population from dividing progenitors results in an excessively convoluted structure with gyri and sulci (referring the ridges and grooves on brain surface, respectively). The highly ordered cortical neuronal arrays develop through tightly regulated steps of neurogenesis, neuronal migration and differentiation. To understand molecular mechanisms underlying cerebral cortical development, the lab studies genes of which mutations cause abnormal formation of the cerebral cortex.