Chenyan Ma is interested in deciphering the mechanisms of sleep regulation and sleep functions from a neuroimmune perspective. Chenyan and her team aim to answer the questions of how the immune system contributes to sleep regulation and what function sleep serves to brain and body immunity. The research team will employ various experimental techniques, including electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) recordings, in vivo two-photon imaging, in vivo electrophysiological recordings, neural tracing, optogenetic/chemogenetic manipulation, high-throughput sequencing, genetic manipulation, immunoassays, cellular and molecular techniques etc., to elucidate the interaction between sleep and immune system and their implications in sleep disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.

2014    China National Scholarship for Graduate Student 

2013    Merit Student of Institute of Neuroscience 

2006    Outstanding Student Scholarship in Nankai University 

2005    Outstanding Student Scholarship in Nankai University 

2004    Outstanding Student Scholarship in Nankai University  

2003    Coca-Cola Scholarship for Outstanding Students 

2003    Freshman Scholarship in Nankai University 

* for co-author; #for co-corresponding author.

1.Ma, C.^*, Li, B.^*, Silverman, D., Ding, X., Li, A., Xiao, C., Huang, G., Worden, K., Muroy, S., Chen, W., Xu, Z., Tso, C., Huang, Y., Zhang, Y., Luo, Q., Saijo, K., and Dan, Y., 2024. Microglia regulate sleep through calcium-dependent modulation of norepinephrine transmission. Nature Neuroscience, 27(2), pp.249-258.

2.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., 2023. Circuit mechanism for suppression of frontal cortical ignition during NREM sleep. Cell, 186(26), pp.5739-5750.

3.Du, Y.^*, Zhou, S.^*, Ma, C.^*, Chen, H.^*, Du, A., Deng, G., Liu, Y., Tose, A.J., Sun, L., Liu, Y., Wu, H., Lou, H., Yu, Y., Zhao, T., Lammel, S., Duan, S., and Yang, H., 2023. Dopamine release and negative valence gated by inhibitory neurons in the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus. Neuron, 111(19), pp.3102-3118.

4.Yao, Y., Barger, Z., Doost, M.S., Tso, C.F., Darmohray, D., Silverman, D., Liu, D., Ma, C., Cetin, A., Yao, S. and Zeng, H., 2022. Cardiovascular baroreflex circuit moonlights in sleep control. Neuron, 110(23), pp.3986-3999.

5.Li, B., Nguyen, T.P., Ma, C. and Dan, Y., 2020. Inhibition of impulsive action by projection-defined prefrontal pyramidal neurons. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(29), pp.17278-17287.

6.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., 2020. A common hub for sleep and motor control in the substantia nigra. Science, 367(6476), pp.440-445.

7.Ma, C., Zhong, P., Liu, D., Barger, Z.K., Zhou, L., Chang, W.C., Kim, B. and Dan, Y., 2019. Sleep regulation by neurotensinergic neurons in a thalamo-amygdala circuit. Neuron, 103(2), pp.323-334.

8.Zhong, P., Zhang, Z., Barger, Z., Ma, C., Liu, D., Ding, X. and Dan, Y., 2019. Control of non-REM sleep by midbrain neurotensinergic neurons. Neuron, 104(4), pp.795-809.

9.Zhang, S., Xu, M., Chang, W.C., Ma, C., Hoang Do, J.P., Jeong, D., Lei, T., Fan, J.L. and Dan, Y., 2016. Organization of long-range inputs and outputs of frontal cortex for top-down control. Nature Neuroscience, 19(12), pp.1733-1742.

10.Xu, M., Chung, S., Zhang, S., Zhong, P., Ma, C., Chang, W.C., Weissbourd, B., Sakai, N., Luo, L., Nishino, S. and Dan, Y., 2015. Basal forebrain circuit for sleep-wake control. Nature Neuroscience, 18(11), pp.1641-1647.

11.Ma, C.^#, Yao, M., Zhai, Q., Jiao, J., Yuan, X. and Poo, M.^#, 2014. SIRT1 suppresses self-renewal of adult hippocampal neural stem cells. Development, 141(24), pp.4697-4709.

https://smart.org.cn/recruit/research-team/content/post_1151555.html