Liqun Luo

Dr. Luo grew up in Shanghai, China, and earned his bachelor's degree in molecular biology from the University of Science and Technology of China. After obtaining his PhD in Brandeis University, and postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Luo started his own lab in the Department of Biology, Stanford University in late 1996. Together with his postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, Dr. Luo studies how neural circuits are organized to process information, and how they are assembled during development. To address these questions, they use fruit flies and mice as model organisms, and combine advanced molecular genetics with anatomical, physiological and behavioral approaches. They have developed a mosaic marking system and used it to study how signals are transduced from cell surface receptors to the cytoskeleton, how neuronal processes are pruned, and how neural circuits are organized and built. Along with being a Professor of Biology at Stanford, he is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Neuron, Current Opinions in Neurobiology and Annual Review of Neurosciences. He also serves on the Pew Scholar National Committee and Scientific Advisory Committee of Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. He is a recipient of the McKnight Technological Innovation in Neuroscience Award, the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, the Jacob Javits Award from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the HW Mossman Award from American Association of Anatomists.

Currently teaching