Haining Zhong, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor, Vollum Institute
  • Scientist, Vollum Institute
  • Neuroscience Graduate Program, School of Medicine

Biography

Haining Zhong earned a B.A. in Biological Science and Biotechnology and B.Eng. in Electronics and Computer Science from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China in 1996. He received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2002. Zhong did postdoctoral training at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and then at the Janelia Farm Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2010, he was appointed as an assistant scientist at the Vollum Institute and was promoted to scientist in 2015.

We study how the brain is regulated and changed to allow the animal to adapt to and excel in the ever-changing world. Our focus is on two types of regulations — neuromodulation and experience-dependent plasticity — using rodents as the experimental model. We harness the advantages of both in vitro and in vivo experiments depending on the specific question using a variety of approaches, including advanced microscopy, electrophysiology, optogenetics, mouse genetics, CRISPR-based gene editing, and computation. Because novel technology enables us to ask long standing questions in new ways, we also actively adapt and develop the relevant technologies, such as endogenous protein labeling, biosensors for subcellular signaling pathways and microscopy. Learn more about Dr. Zhong’s research at the Vollum Institute.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 1996, Tsinghua University
    • Ph.D., 2002, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Areas of interest

  • photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM)
  • two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (2PFLIM)
  • fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy
  • CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing
  • in vivo imaging of neuromodulation and subcellular signaling in awake animals
  • protein and signaling dynamics during plasticity, cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA) signaling, labeling of endogenous proteins
  • dopamine, striatum, mouse locomotion

Honors and awards

  • NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2011-2016)
  • NARSAD Young Investigator Award, The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (2013-2015)

Publications

Publications

  • Cryo-electron tomographic investigation of native hippocampal glutamatergic synapses

    eLife
    1. Aya Matsui
    2. Cathy Spangler
    3. Johannes Elferich
    4. Momoko Shiozaki
    5. Nikki Jean
    6. Xiaowei Zhao
    7. Maozhen Qin
    8. Haining Zhong
    9. Zhiheng Yu
    10. Eric Gouaux
  • PKA regulation of neuronal function requires the dissociation of catalytic subunits from regulatory subunits

    eLife
    1. Wei-Hong Xiong
    2. Maozhen Qin
    3. Haining Zhong
  • Schwann cell-secreted PGE2 promotes sensory neuron excitability during development

    Cell
    1. Husniye Kantarci
    2. Pablo D. Elvira
    3. Arun P. Thottumkara
    4. Emma M. O'Connell
    5. Manasi Iyer
    6. Lauren J. Donovan
    7. Micaela Quinn Dugan
    8. Nicholas Ambiel
    9. Alejandro Granados
    10. Hong Zeng
    11. Nay L. Saw
    12. Amanda Brosius Lutz
    13. Steven A. Sloan
    14. Erin E. Gray
    15. Khanh V. Tran
    16. Aditi Vichare
    17. Ashley K. Yeh
    18. Alexandra E. Münch
    19. Max Huber
    20. Aditi Agrawal
    21. Maurizio Morri
    22. Haining Zhong
    23. Mehrdad Shamloo
    24. Thomas Anthony Anderson
    25. Vivianne L. Tawfik
    26. J. Du Bois
    27. J. Bradley Zuchero
  • Widespread co-release of glutamate and GABA throughout the mouse brain

    Communications Biology
    1. Cesar C. Ceballos
    2. Lei Ma
    3. Maozhen Qin
    4. Haining Zhong
  • Btbd11 supports cell-type-specific synaptic function

    Cell Reports
    1. Alexei M. Bygrave
    2. Ayesha Sengupta
    3. Ella P. Jackert
    4. Mehroz Ahmed
    5. Beloved Adenuga
    6. Erik Nelson
    7. Hana L. Goldschmidt
    8. Richard C. Johnson
    9. Haining Zhong
    10. Felix L. Yeh
    11. Morgan Sheng
    12. Richard L. Huganir
  • A high-performance genetically encoded fluorescent indicator for in vivo cAMP imaging

    Nature communications
    1. Liang Wang
    2. Chunling Wu
    3. Wanling Peng
    4. Ziliang Zhou
    5. Jianzhi Zeng
    6. Xuelin Li
    7. Yini Yang
    8. Shuguang Yu
    9. Ye Zou
    10. Mian Huang
    11. Chang Liu
    12. Yefei Chen
    13. Yi Li
    14. Panpan Ti
    15. Wenfeng Liu
    16. Yufeng Gao
    17. Wei Zheng
    18. Haining Zhong
    19. Shangbang Gao
    20. Zhonghua Lu
    21. Pei Gen Ren
    22. Ho Leung Ng
    23. Jie He
    24. Shoudeng Chen
    25. Min Xu
    26. Yulong Li
    27. Jun Chu
  • Labeling Endogenous Proteins Using CRISPR-mediated Insertion of Exon (CRISPIE)

    Bio-protocol
    1. Evan A. Wilson
    2. Tianyi Mao
    3. Haining Zhong
  • Locomotion activates PKA through dopamine and adenosine in striatal neurons

    Nature
    1. Lei Ma
    2. Julian Day-Cooney
    3. Omar Jáidar Benavides
    4. Michael A. Muniak
    5. Maozhen Qin
    6. Jun B. Ding
    7. Tianyi Mao
    8. Haining Zhong
  • Sensitive genetically encoded sensors for population and subcellular imaging of cAMP in vivo

    Nature Methods
    1. Crystian I. Massengill
    2. Landon Bayless-Edwards
    3. Cesar C. Ceballos
    4. Elizabeth R. Cebul
    5. James Cahill
    6. Arpita Bharadwaj
    7. Evan Wilson
    8. Maozhen Qin
    9. Matthew R. Whorton
    10. Isabelle Baconguis
    11. Bing Ye
    12. Tianyi Mao
    13. Haining Zhong
  • Distinct in vivo dynamics of excitatory synapses onto cortical pyramidal neurons and parvalbumin-positive interneurons

    Cell Reports
    1. Joshua B. Melander
    2. Aran Nayebi
    3. Bart C. Jongbloets
    4. Dale A. Fortin
    5. Maozhen Qin
    6. Surya Ganguli
    7. Tianyi Mao
    8. Haining Zhong
  • High-fidelity, efficient, and reversible labeling of endogenous proteins using crispr-based designer exon insertion

    eLife
    1. Haining Zhong
    2. Cesar C. Ceballos
    3. Crystian I. Massengill
    4. Michael A. Muniak
    5. Lei Ma
    6. Maozhen Qin
    7. Stefanie Kaech Petrie
    8. Tianyi Mao
  • Myristoylation alone is sufficient for PKA catalytic subunits to associate with the plasma membrane to regulate neuronal functions

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    1. Wei Hong Xiong
    2. Maozhen Qin
    3. Haining Zhong
  • Live Neuron High-Content Screening Reveals Synaptotoxic Activity in Alzheimer Mouse Model Homogenates

    Scientific Reports
    1. Hao Jiang
    2. Thomas J. Esparza
    3. Terrance T. Kummer
    4. Haining Zhong
    5. Jens Rettig
    6. David L. Brody
  • Dynamic assembly of ribbon synapses and circuit maintenance in a vertebrate sensory system

    Nature communications
    1. Haruhisa Okawa
    2. Wan Qing Yu
    3. Ulf Matti
    4. Karin Schwarz
    5. Benjamin Odermatt
    6. Haining Zhong
    7. Yoshihiko Tsukamoto
    8. Leon Lagnado
    9. Fred Rieke
    10. Frank Schmitz
    11. Rachel O.L. Wong
  • Visualizing protein kinase A activity in head-fixed behaving mice using in vivo two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

    Journal of Visualized Experiments
    1. Bart C. Jongbloets
    2. Lei Ma
    3. Tianyi Mao
    4. Haining Zhong
  • A Highly Sensitive A-Kinase Activity Reporter for Imaging Neuromodulatory Events in Awake Mice

    Neuron
    1. Lei Ma
    2. Bart C. Jongbloets
    3. Wei Hong Xiong
    4. Joshua B. Melander
    5. Maozhen Qin
    6. Tess J. Lameyer
    7. Madeleine F. Harrison
    8. Boris V. Zemelman
    9. Tianyi Mao
    10. Haining Zhong
  • Ultrafast neuronal imaging of dopamine dynamics with designed genetically encoded sensors

    Science
    1. Tommaso Patriarchi
    2. Jounhong Ryan Cho
    3. Katharina Merten
    4. Mark W. Howe
    5. Aaron Marley
    6. Wei Hong Xiong
    7. Robert W. Folk
    8. Gerard Joey Broussard
    9. Ruqiang Liang
    10. Min Jee Jang
    11. Haining Zhong
    12. Daniel Dombeck
    13. Mark von Zastrow
    14. Axel Nimmerjahn
    15. Viviana Gradinaru
    16. John T. Williams
    17. Lin Tian
  • Liberated PKA Catalytic Subunits Associate with the Membrane via Myristoylation to Preferentially Phosphorylate Membrane Substrates

    Cell Reports
    1. Shane E. Tillo
    2. Wei Hong Xiong
    3. Maho Takahashi
    4. Sheng Miao
    5. Adriana L. Andrade
    6. Dale A. Fortin
    7. Guang Yang
    8. Maozhen Qin
    9. Barbara F. Smoody
    10. Philip J.S. Stork
    11. Haining Zhong
  • Ontogenetic establishment of order-specific nuclear organization in the mammalian thalamus

    Nature Neuroscience
    1. Wei Shi
    2. Anjin Xianyu
    3. Zhi Han
    4. Xing Tang
    5. Zhizhong Li
    6. Haining Zhong
    7. Tianyi Mao
    8. Kun Huang
    9. Song Hai Shi
  • A comprehensive excitatory input map of the striatum reveals novel functional organization

    eLife
    1. Barbara J. Hunnicutt
    2. Bart C. Jongbloets
    3. William T. Birdsong
    4. Katrina J. Gertz
    5. Haining Zhong
    6. Tianyi Mao
  • Applying superresolution localization-based microscopy to neurons

    Synapse
    1. Haining Zhong
  • A comprehensive thalamocortical projection map at the mesoscopic level

    Nature Neuroscience
    1. Barbara J. Hunnicutt
    2. Brian R. Long
    3. Deniz Kusefoglu
    4. Katrina J. Gertz
    5. Haining Zhong
    6. Tianyi Mao
  • Live imaging of endogenous PSD-95 using ENABLED

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Dale A. Fortin
    2. Shane E. Tillo
    3. Guang Yang
    4. Jong Cheol Rah
    5. Joshua B. Melander
    6. Suxia Bai
    7. Omar Soler-Cedeño
    8. Maozhen Qin
    9. Boris V. Zemelman
    10. Caiying Guo
    11. Tianyi Mao
    12. Haining Zhong
  • Photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM)

    Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
    1. Haining Zhong
  • Photon capture and signalling by melanopsin retinal ganglion cells

    Nature
    1. Michael Tri H. Do
    2. Shin H. Kang
    3. Tian Xue
    4. Haining Zhong
    5. Hsi Wen Liao
    6. Dwight E. Bergles
    7. King Wai Yau