2022.9-Present, Principal Investigator, Institute of Zoology of Chinese Academy of Sciences

2021.9-2022.8, Research Associate, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, US

2016.9-2021.8, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, US

2011.7-2016.8, Assistant Professor, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China

Education:

2006.9-2011.7 Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Zoology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

2002.9-2006.7 B.S. in Biotechnology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China

The final mission of the brain is the dictation of bebavioral outputs. Animals live in an extremely complicated and dynamic environment, and how the brain senses and encodes external information so as to guide animals performing optimal behaviors (e.g., feeding, social, defensive and mating behavior, etc.) is very crucial for its survival and reproduction. Clarifying the physiological and neural modulation mechanisms underlying behavioral outputs and adaptation will greatly benefit the exploration and development of novel strategies for behavioral modulation, and will provide valuable insights for the early warning, prevention and control as well as integrated management of rodent pest.

The lab takes advantage of laboratory and wild rodents as research objects, and uses a comprehensive combination of in vivo and in vitro electrophysiological recordings, optogenetics, chemogenetics, virus-guided neural circuit tracing, as well as multiple behavioral assays, aiming to decipher the physiological and neurological mechanisms responsible for behavioral regulation from a view of the molecular, cellular, circuitry, behavioral and physiological level, at both in vitro and in vivo states. The projects are mainly focused on but not limited to (1) The molecular and neural circuit mechanisms underlying feeding behavior of the olfactory cortex-hypothalamus pathway; (3) The neural mechanism underlying social behavior regulated by interactions between the olfactory system and other brain areas; (3) The neural circuit mechanism responsible for emotion-related behaviors guided by the olfactory system; (4) Under the state of “pros and cons” conflict, how animals weigh and game between different behavioral outputs and what are the corresponding neural mechanisms. The final aim is to clarify the differences in the aforementioned aspects between laboratory and wild rodents and uncover the neural substrates responsible for these differences via a comprehensive comparison study, and deepen our understanding of the working mechanism underlying rodent behavior in population occurrence and damage, so as to supply theoretical evidence and technical support for the prevention and control as well as management of rodent pest.

(#contribute equally，*corresponding author)

1. Jinxia Liu#, Jiaming Qi#, Nan Jiang, Yuzhen Wang, Weihao Li, Shiyi Tian, Liujing Zhuang, Yun-Feng Zhang*, Yongliang Liu*, Yiqun Yu*. Olfactory epithelium organoid models identify Ddit3 as a potential therapeutic target against inflammation-related olfactory sensory neuronal loss and functional deficit. International Journal of Biological Sciences. 2026, 22, 4025-4042.
2. Wenqiang Wang#, Yanbiao Zhong#, Ruiyi Tan#, Maoyuan Wang#, Jia Liu#, Ding Wang, Haiping Wang, Yue Li, Guanqing Li, Jian Yang, Peng Wang, Jialiang Wu, Jianxu Zhang, Chen-Zhu Wang, Haishui Shi, Minghong Ma*, Yiqun Yu*, Yun-Feng Zhang*. A midbrain to ventral striatum dopaminergic pathway orchestrates odor-guided insect predation in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). 2025 Oct 14;122(41):e2514847122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2514847122.
3. Jiahan Liu#, Yanbiao Zhong#, Haishui Shi#, Zhangwei Song#, Ruiyi Tan#, Maoyuan Wang#, Jian Yang#, Haiping Wang*, Yun-Feng Zhang*. A Glimpse of the Role of Olfactory Tubercle in Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Flavour and Fragrance Journal. 2025, 0:1-10.
4. Jinxia Liu#, Yun-Feng Zhang*, and Yiqun Yu*. Establishment of nasal and olfactory epithelium organoids for unveiling mechanism of tissue regeneration and pathogenesis of nasal diseases. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 2025, 82: 33.
5. Zhangwei Song#, Wenqiang Wang#, Haiping Wang#, Yanbiao Zhong#, Guanqing Li, Ruiyi Tan*, Yun-Feng Zhang*. Cariprazine modulates affective and social behaviors through ventral striatal islands of Calleja neurons. Current Zoology. 2025 Jun 11:zoaf034.
6. Guanqing Li#, Chanyi Lu#, Miaomiao Yin, Peng Wang, Pengbo Zhang, Jialiang Wu, Wenqiang Wang, Ding Wang, Mengyue Wang, Jiahan Liu, Xinghan Lin, Jian-Xu Zhang, Zhenshan Wang*, Yiqun Yu*, Yun-Feng Zhang*. Neural substrates for regulating self-grooming behavior in rodents. Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B. 2024, 1-16.
7. Wenqiang Wang#, Haiping Wang#, Jian Yang, Mengyue Wang, Pengbo Zhang, Zheng Zhu, Liya Wei, Yanbiao Zhong*, Yun-Feng Zhang*. A Short Glance at the Role of Olfactory Tubercle in Odour Processing. Flavour and Fragrance Journal. 2024, 1-9.
8. Kun Yang, Yuto Hasegawa, Janardhan P. Bhattarai, Jun Hua, Milan Dower, Semra Etyemez, Neal Prasad, Lauren Duvall, Adrian Paez, Amy Smith, Yingqi Wang, Yun-Feng Zhang, Yun-Feng Zhang, Andrew P. Lane, Koko Ishizuka, Vidyulata Kamath, Minghong Ma, Atsushi Kamiya*, Akira Sawa*. Inflammation-related pathology in the olfactory epithelium: its impact on the olfactory system in psychotic disorders. Molecular Psychiatry. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02425-8.
9. Ming-Yu Zhang, Rui-Dong Cao, Yi Chen, Jian-Cang Ma, Cheng-Min Shi, Yun-Feng Zhang, Jian-Xu Zhang*, Yao-Hua Zhang*. Genomic and phenotypic adaptations of Rattus tanezumi to cold limit its further northward expansion and range overlap with R. norvegicus. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 2024, Jun 1;41(6).
10. Yun-Feng Zhang*, Jialiang Wu, Yingqi Wang, Natalie L. Johnson, Janardhan P. Bhattarai, Guanqing Li, Wenqiang Wang, Camilo Guevara, Hannah Shoenhard, Marc V. Fuccillo, Daniel W. Wesson, Minghong Ma*. Ventral striatal islands of Calleja neurons bidirectionally mediate depression-like behaviors in mice. Nature Communications. 2023, 14:6887. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42662-z.
11. Yun-Feng Zhang*, Emma Janke, Janardhan P. Bhattarai, Daniel W. Wesson, Minghong Ma*. Self-grooming promotes social interaction in mice via chemosensory communication. iScience. 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104284.
12. Yun-Feng Zhang, Luigim Vargas Cifuentes, Katherine N. Wright, Janardhan P. Bhattarai, Julia Mohrhardt, David Fleck, Emma Janke, Chunjie Jiang, Suna L. Cranfill, Nitsan Goldstein, Mary Schreck, Andrew H. Moberly, Yiqun Yu, Benjamin R. Arenkiel, J. Nicholas Betley, Wenqin Luo, Johannes Stegmaier, Daniel W. Wesson*, Marc Spehr*, Marc V. Fuccillo*, Minghong Ma*. Ventral striatal islands of Calleja neurons control grooming in mice. Nature Neuroscience. 2021, 24:1699-1710.
13. Kate A. White#, Yun-Feng Zhang#, Zhijian Zhang#, Janardhan P. Bhattarai, Andrew H. Moberly, Estelle E. in 't Zandt, José I. Pena-Bravo, Huijie Mi, Xianglian Jia, Marc V. Fuccillo, Fuqiang Xu, Minghong Ma and Daniel W. Wesson*. Glutamatergic Neurons in the Piriform Cortex Influence the Activity of D1-and D2-Type Receptor-Expressing Olfactory Tubercle Neurons. Journal of Neuroscience. 2019, 39:9546-9559.