Peng Zhong, PhD, is a new faculty member at UNMC.
- Name: Peng Zhong, PhD
- Hometown: Heilongjiang, China
- Title and department at UNMC: Assistant professor, UNMC Department of Neurological Sciences
Previous positions:
- Senior research scientist, SRI International, 2020-2022
- Postdoctoral fellow, University of California, Berkeley and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2015-2020
Research Interests: My research aims to unravel the neural underpinnings of causal relationship between sleep disturbance and neurodegenerative disorders, with the ultimate goal of learning how to repair the diseased nervous systems. Taking advantage of multiple state-of-the-art techniques (gene profiling, virus-mediated circuit tracing, in vivo calcium imaging/optrode recording, ex vivo patch clamp recording, optogenetic/chemogenetic manipulation and gene manipulation), we take a multifaceted but integrated experimental approach for interrogating the neural circuits controlling sleep and studying the pathophysiology of sleep circuits in the generation of sleep disorders and neuropsychiatric/neurodegenerative disorders.
How I fell in love with sleep research: I have often been asked questions by non-scientist friends and neighbors such as, “Do we use our brain 24 hours a day?”, and “Why is sleep necessary?” I still cannot answer such difficult questions. As a basic neuroscience researcher, I strive to understand how our brain controls sleep and also to promote better sleep.
Degrees:
- MS in biomedical engineering, Florida State University
- PhD in biomedical sciences, Medical College of Wisconsin
Memberships:
- Sleep Research Society
- Society for Neuroscience
Three things people may not know about me:
- I am a sleeper.
- I am a sports fan.
- I am a Green Bay Packers football fan, Houston Rockets basketball fan and San Francisco Giants baseball fan.
Welcome to Omaha and UNMC Peng.