Malei

Lei Ma is a distinguished professor, Ph.D. supervisor, and has been recognized in a national youth talent program and is a recipient of the Jiangsu Distinguished Young Scholar award and the Jiangsu Distinguished Professor. Lei Ma's research group is dedicated to pioneering studies in neuroscience. Graduating in 2015 from the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, Lei Ma began postdoctoral research at the Vollum Institute in 2017 and was promoted to Staff Scientist there in 2022. In 2024, he joined the School of Life Science and Technology at China Pharmaceutical University as an independent Principal Investigator, supported by the university's high-level talent program. In recent years, he has published as the first author in prestigious journals, including Nature (as the sole first author), Nature Neuroscience, and Neuron.

1.L. Ma, Julian Day-Cooney, Omar Pedro Jaidar Benavides, Michael A. Muniak, Maozhen Qin, Jun B. Ding, Tianyi Mao, and Haining Zhong. Locomotion activates PKA in both direct and indirect pathway striatal projection neurons. Nature. 2022 Nov;611(7937):762-768.   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05407-4

2.L. Ma*, B. C. Jongbloets*, W. H. Xiong*, J. B. Melander, M. Qin, T. J. Lameyer, M. F. Harrison, B. V. Zemelman, T. Mao and H. Zhong (2018). A Highly Sensitive A-Kinase Activity Reporter for Imaging Neuromodulatory Events in Awake Mice. Neuron 99(4): 665-679 e665. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627318305944

3.Li, W*., L. Ma*, G. Yang and W. B. Gan (2017). REM sleep selectively prunes and maintains new synapses in development and learning. Nature Neuroscience 20(3): 427-437. (Co-first author) https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.4479

4.L. Ma*, Q. Qiao*, J. W. Tsai, G. Yang, W. Li and W. B. Gan (2016). Experience-dependent plasticity of dendritic spines of layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in the mouse cortex. Developmental Neurobiology 76(3): 277-286.

5.B. C. Jongbloets*, L. Ma*, T. Mao and H. Zhong (2019). Visualizing Protein Kinase A Activity In Head-Fixed Behaving Mice Using In Vivo Two-Photon Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy. J. Vis. Exp. (148), e59526, doi:10.3791/59526 (2019). (Co-first author).

6.L. Ma, BC Jongbloets, WH Xiong, H Zhong, T Mao (2019). Imaging neuromodulatory signaling events at single cell resolution in behaving animal. Microscopy and Microanalysis 25 (S2), 1130-1131

1. Investigate the sources of adenosine release and its regulatory mechanisms on animal behavior.

2. Explore the mechanisms by which cholinergic neurons regulate striatal neuron PKA and influence animal behavior.

3. Examine the impact of dopamine depletion on striatal neuron PKA and, based on these findings, develop novel strategies targeting PKA for the intervention and treatment of dopamine-related disorders.

4. Investigate the changes in PKA after sleep deprivation and their effects on learning, memory, and emotions.

Jiangsu Distinguished Young Scholar award and the Jiangsu Distinguished Professor