Joe Z. Tsien

Joe Z. Tsien, Ph.D., is a renowned brain researcher and geneticist who has pioneered Cre/lox-neurogenetics in 1990s, a versatile toolbox for neuroscientists to study the complex relationships between genes, neural circuits, and behaviors. In 2015, he developed the Theory of Connectivity to describe the origin of intelligence: A "Power-of-Two"-based mathematical principle that outlines the basic wiring and computational logic of the brain.

Dr. Tsien is currently the Eminent Scholar in Cognitive and Systems Neurobiology at Georgia Research Alliance, professor of Neurology, and co-Director of the Brain and Behavior Discovery Institute in the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia, USA.

Education

Tsien earned his A.B. in Biology/Physiology from East China Normal University in Shanghai and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Minnesota in 1990. He completed two postdoctoral fellowships with two Nobel laureates, Dr. Eric Kandel at Columbia University and Dr. Susumu Tonegawa at MIT.

Career

In 1997, he became a faculty member in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. He is currently a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Neuroscience. Tsien is currently leading a team of neuroscientists, computer scientists, mathematicians, working on the BRAIN DECODING project initiated in 2007 by Georgia Research Alliance.[1]

Research

Tsien pioneered Cre-loxP-mediated brain subregion- and cell type-specific genetic techniques in 1996,[2] enabling researchers to manipulate or introduce any gene in a specific brain region or a given type of neuron. This transformative technique has led to NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research in launching several Cre-driver Mouse Resource projects. Over the past 20 years, Cre-lox recombination-mediated neurogenetics has emerged as one of the most powerful and versatile technology platforms for cell-specific gene knockouts, transgenic overexpression,neural circuit tracing, Brainbow, optogenetics, CLARITY, voltage imaging and chemical genetics.[3][4][5]

Tsien is also widely known as the creator of smart mouse Doogie. Tsien and his team genetically over-expressed the NR2B subunit of the NMDA receptor in the mouse cortex and hippocampus, leading to enhanced synaptic plasticity and enhanced learning and retention.[6][7] The discovery of the NR2B as a key genetic factor for memory enhancement prompted other researchers to discover over two dozen other genes for memory enhancement, many of which regulate the NR2B pathway.[8] One of the NR2B-based memory-enhancement strategies, via dietary supplements of a brain-penetrating magnesium ion, magnesium L-threonate, is currently undergoing clinical trials for memory improvement[9][10]

Tsien is currently leading a team of neuroscientists, computer scientists and mathematicians, who are all working on the Brain Decoding Project,[11] a large-scale brain activity mapping effort, which he and his colleagues have initiated since 2007 with the support from the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA).[12][13]

More recently, Tsien has put forth the Theory of Connectivity to explain the design principle upon which evolution and development may construct the brains to be capable of generating intelligence.,.[14][15]

Recognition

Tsien has been the recipient of many awards for his research contributions, including

Popular science

Tsien has contributed articles to Scientific American in the areas of neuroscience of memory enhancement and memory decoding [16][17] He wrote chapters on learning and memory in several popular textbooks.

References

  1. ↑ BRAIN DECODING PROJECT, http://braindecodingproject.org/
  2. ↑ Tsien JZ. (2016). Cre-lox neurogenetics: 20 years of versatile applications in brain research and counting...Front. Genet. | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2016.00019. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fgene.2016.00019/abstract
  3. ↑ Tsien et al. (1996). "Subregion- and cell type-restricted gene knockout in mouse brain". Cell 87: 1317–26. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81826-7.
  4. ↑ Taniguchi H, He M, Wu P, Kim S, Paik R, Sugino K, Kvitsiani D, Fu Y, Lu J, Lin Y, Miyoshi G, Shima Y, Fishell G, Nelson SB, Huang ZJ (September 22, 2011). "A resource of Cre driver lines for genetic targeting of GABAergic neurons in cerebral cortex". Neuron 71 (6): 995–1013. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.07.026. PMID 21943598.
  5. ↑ Cre lines characterized by the JAX Cre Resource
  6. ↑ Tang, YP; Shimizu, E; Dube, GR; Rampon, C; Kerchner, GA; Zhuo, M; Liu, G; Tsien, JZ (Sep 1999). "Genetic enhancement of learning and memory in mice". Nature 401 (6748): 63–9. doi:10.1038/43432. PMID 10485705.
  7. ↑ Wade, Nicholas. "SCIENTIST AT WORK: Joe Z. Tsien; Of Smart Mice and an Even Smarter Man." New York Times, September 7, 1999.
  8. ↑ Lehrer, Jonah (2009). "Neuroscience: Small, furry … and smart". Nature 461 (461): 862–864. doi:10.1038/461862a.
  9. ↑ Cyranoski, David (October 26, 2012). "Testing magnesium's brain-boosting effects Simple ion therapy faces human trials after ten years of preparation". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.11665. Retrieved November 2014.
  10. ↑ Liu G, Weinger JG, Lu ZL, Xue F, Sadeghpour S. (2015). Efficacy and Safety of MMFS-01, a Synapse Density Enhancer, for Treating Cognitive Impairment in Elderly: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. J Alzheimers Dis. 2015 Oct 27.
  11. ↑ http://braindecodingproject.org/
  12. ↑ Tsien et al., On Initial Brain Activity Mapping of Episodic and Semantic Memory Code in the Hippocampus. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 2013
  13. ↑ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1074742713001111
  14. ↑ Tsien JZ (2015). A Postulate on the Brain's Basic Wiring Logic.Trends Neurosci. 2015 Nov;38(11):669-71. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016622361500209X
  15. ↑ Tsien JZ, (2016) Principles of Intelligence: On Evolutionary Logic of the Brains. Front. Syst. Neurosci. | doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2015.00186, http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnsys.2015.00186/full
  16. ↑ Tsien, Building a Brainer Mouse. Scientific American, April, p62-68, 2000. http://www.bio.utexas.edu/courses/kalthoff/bio346/PDF/Readings/11Tsien%282000%29brainier.pdf
  17. ↑ Tsien, The memory code, Scientific American, July, 2007; http://redwood.psych.cornell.edu/courses/psych512fall07/papers/Tsien_memorycode_07.pdf

External links

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