Neural cartography: Mapping the brain across scales
Aaron Kuan's lab investigates how circuit connectivity within and between brain areas supports a diverse array of functions. His lab aims to apply circuit-mapping techniques at brain-wide scales to understand how brain wiring underlies cognition and neurological diseases. Kuan develops new electron microscopy and X-ray imaging techniques to enable 3D imaging of neuronal circuits with unprecedented resolution and scale and combines these approaches with behavior and functional imaging to reveal how circuit connectivity underlies brain activity and, ultimately, cognition. The long-term research goal is to extend high-resolution circuit mapping techniques to brain-wide scales to unite "top-down" and "bottom-up" views of brain anatomy and function.
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Biography
Kuan (he/him) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine and a Wu Tsai Investigator. As a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School with co-mentors Dr. Wei-Chung Lee and Dr. Christopher Harvey, Kuan leveraged his electron microscopy and X-ray imaging techniques to investigate how decision-making is implemented in the brain. He received his PhD in applied physics under the mentorship of Dr. Jene Golovchenko. Kuan is also a violinist and conductor, having studied at the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School and served as the Music Director of the Dudley House Orchestra at Harvard University for several years.