Professor Yang Dan earned her undergraduate degree (Physics) from Peking University, followed by a PhD (Biological Sciences) from Columbia University. She subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at Rockefeller University & Harvard Medical School. Prior to returning to China, she worked as a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a Researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). In June 2025, she joined the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation as a full-time Senior Principal Investigator and Director of Institute of Neuromodulation and Cognition (INC).

Professor Yang Dan has long been dedicated to neuroscience research, making significant contributions to understanding the neural mechanisms underlying visual perception, attention, and sleep. In recent years, she has employed a variety of advanced physiological and molecular techniques to systematically analyze the neural circuits that regulate sleep, opening a new chapter in the field of sleep research.

Major Awards and Honors

2008 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Researcher

2018 Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences

2023 Recipient of the Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience

2024 Recipient of the Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize

2025 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Lab Research Directions

Professor Yang Dan's lab employs mouse and non-human primate models to investigate the neural basis of consciousness and two fundamental questions of sleep: why we sleep and how we sleep. Their approach integrates techniques such as EEG/EMG, in-vivo two-photon imaging, in-vivo electrophysiology, neural tracing, optogenetic/chemogenetic manipulation, high-throughput sequencing, molecular genetic manipulation, and cellular/molecular biology.

Selected Publications

1. Li, B., Ma, C., Huang, Y.-A., Ding, X., Silverman, D., Chen, C., Darmohray, D., Lu, L., Liu, S., Montaldo, G., Urban, A., and Dan, Y. Circuit mechanism for suppression of frontal cortical ignition during NREM sleep. Cell, 2023, 186(26): 5739-5750. e17.

2. Liu D., Li W., Ma C., Zheng W., Yao Y., Tso C.F., Zhong P., Chen X., Song J.H., Choi W., Paik S.-B., Han H., and Dan Y. A Common Hub for Sleep and Motor Control in the Substantia Nigra. Science, 2020, 367(6476): 440-445.

3. Liu, D., & Dan, Y. (2019). A motor theory of sleep-wake control: arousal-action circuit. Annual review of neuroscience, 42(1), 27-46.