Associate Professor - Basic Medical Sciences
Education
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Vanderbilt University, 2009; University of Southern California, 2012
PhD: Neuroscience, University of California, Riverside, 2004
MD: Nanjing Medical University, 1994
MPH: Nanjing Medical University, 1997
Representative Recent Publications
Conditional knockout of MET receptor tyrosine kinase in cortical excitatory neurons leads to enhanced learning and memory in young adult mice but early cognitive decline in older adult mice. Xia B, Wei J, Ma X, Nehme A, Liong K, Cui Y, Chen C, Gallitano A, Ferguson D, Qiu S. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2021 Jan 29:107397. doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107397. PMID: 33524570
Depletion of microglia in developing cortical circuits reveals its critical role in glutamatergic synapse development, functional connectivity, and critical period plasticity. Ma X, Chen K, Cui Y, Huang G, Nehme A, Zhang L, Li H, Wei J, Liong K, Liu Q, Shi L, Wu J, Qiu S. J Neurosci Res. 2020 Oct;98(10):1968-1986. doi: 10.1002/jnr.24641. PMID: 32594561
Time-delimited signaling of MET receptor tyrosine kinase regulates cortical circuit development and critical period plasticity. Chen K, Ma X, Nehme A, Wei J, Cui Y, Cui Y, Yao D, Wu J, Anderson T, Ferguson D, Levitt P, Qiu S. Mol Psychiatry. 2020. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0635-6. PMID: 31900430
Uncovering the Functional Link Between SHANK3 Deletions and Deficiency in Neurodevelopment Using iPSC-Derived Human Neurons. Huang G, Chen S, Chen X, Zheng J, Xu Z, Doostparast Torshizi A, Gong S, Chen Q, Ma X, Yu J, Zhou L, Qiu S, Wang K, Shi L. Front Neuroanat. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2019.00023. eCollection 2019. PMID: 30918484
Disruption of MET Receptor Tyrosine Kinase, an Autism Risk Factor, Impairs Developmental Synaptic Plasticity in the Hippocampus. Ma X, Chen K, Lu Z, Piechowicz M, Liu Q, Wu J, Qiu S. Dev Neurobiol. 2019 Jan;79(1):36-50. doi: 10.1002/dneu.22645. PMID: 30304576
Distinct Circuits for Recovery of Eye Dominance and Acuity in Murine Amblyopia. Stephany CÉ, Ma X, Dorton HM, Wu J, Solomon AM, Frantz MG, Qiu S*, McGee AW*. Curr Biol. 2018 Jun 18;28(12):1914-1923.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.04.055. PMID: 29887305. * co-senior authorship.
The autism-associated MET receptor tyrosine kinase engages early neuronal growth mechanism and controls glutamatergic circuits development in the forebrain. Peng Y, Lu Z, Li G, Piechowicz M, Anderson M, Uddin Y, Wu J, Qiu S. Mol Psychiatry. 2016 Jul;21(7):925-35. doi: 10.1038/mp.2015.182. Epub 2016 Jan 5. PMID: 26728565
MET receptor tyrosine kinase controls dendritic complexity, spine morphogenesis, and glutamatergic synapse maturation in the hippocampus. Qiu S, Lu Z, Levitt P. J Neurosci. 2014 Dec 3;34(49):16166-79. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2580-14.2014. PMID: 25471559
More publications available from PubMed
Research Interests
Neurodevelopmental Disorders, electrophysiology, brain circuit connectivity, synaptic transmission and plasticity, mouse models
Research Summary
The overall interest of Dr. Shenfeng Qiu's lab is to understand the brain origins of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders. One ongoing project (R01MH111619) focuses on the role of MET tyrosine kinase, identified as a major risk for autism. Our lab aims to identify mechanisms by which MET affects neuronal growth, maturation and brain circuit function. We are also interested in the UBE3A protein in Angelman syndrome.