Wei Shen, PhDAssociate Professor

Thermal homeostasis is the ability of an organism, including most mammals to keep its body temperature within a narrow boundary, even under thermal challenge or other stimuli. Thermal homeostasis is necessary for other physiological activities to take place. Misregulation of body temperature, such as fever and hypothermia, are commonly seen in patients. Furthermore, thermoregulation is tightly connected to energy expenditure as 50% of fuel is spent to maintain body temperature at rest.

Overweight and obesity is one of the five major death-threatening health risks world-wide. Due to easy access to high-energy content food and reduced energy expenditure (lack of excise, or lowered thermogenesis), more and more people are becoming obese. In China, there are more than 100 million people who are suffering from obesity and obesity associated problems. Unfortunately, there are few drugs available to prevent obesity development.

Therefore, Dr. Shen’s group is using techniques including optogenetics, fiber photometry and grin-lens-based microendoscopic calcium imaging, ribosomal profiling and mRNA sequencing to delineate the mechanism for: 1) thermoregulation and its related disorders; 2) the interplay between thermoregulation and energy expenditure; 3) feeding/hunting behaviors and their roles in weight control, reward and motivation; 4) central mechanism   for regulation of blood sugar levels; 4) related diseases such as fever, obesity, anorexia, diabetes. Dr. Shen welcomes highly motivated scientists to join the team.