
Assistant Professor
CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research
Fax: 979-845-2891
Email:
wli01@tamu.edu
Office:
308A BSBW
Lab:
308 BSBW
Phone:
458-0009
Joined the Department in 2022
- B.S., Biological Sciences, Nankai University. 2004
- Ph.D., Molecular and Cellular Biology, Stony Brook University. 2011 (Joint program with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Postdoctoral Associate & Research Associate,The Rockefeller University.
Associations:
- Genetics Society of America
- Society for Research on Biological Rhythms
- International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society
Chronic social isolation and loneliness have profound impacts on public health. Though experimental manipulations have been widely applied to studying sleep/wakefulness and circadian regulation in animal models, how normal sleep is perturbed by social isolation and chronic stress is largely unknown. We previously reported that chronically isolated animals exhibit sleep-loss accompanied by overconsumption of food. The observed behavioral changes induced by chronic social isolation stress is linked to neural activities in specific neural circuits in the Drosophila brain. These results resonate with anecdotal findings of loneliness-associated sleep difficulties and hyperphagia in humans, and present a mechanistic link between chronic social isolation, metabolism, and sleep, addressing a long-standing call for animal models focused on loneliness. Future work built upon this model will help us understand the perception of social isolation and other emotional states, the regulation of sleep/wakefulness, and the regulation of metabolism at the intersection of genetics, biological timing, and neurobiology. Furthermore, we seek to apply these findings in stress neurobiology to the field of chronic diseases, and ultimately to establish a genetically tractable model to study the reciprocal relationship between chronic stress and the progression of chronic illness, such as cancer. We are supported by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) for developing this new and exciting direction of research.
- Zou, L., Li, W., Yang, M., Lin, B., and Abedin, J.: The impact of social isolation on sleep disturbances – evidence from geospatial big data during COVID-19, Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 6, 293, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-6-293-2023, 2023.
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Wang Z, Lincoln S, Nguyen AD, Li W, Young MW. Chronic sleep loss disrupts rhythmic gene expression in Drosophila. Frontiers in Physiology. 2022 ;13:1048751. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.1048751. PMID: 36467698; PMCID: PMC9716074.
- Vora A, Nguyen AD, Spicer C, Li W. The impact of social isolation on health and behavior in Drosophila melanogaster and beyond. Brain Science Advances. 2022;8(3):183-196. doi:10.26599/BSA.2022.9050016
- Li, W., & Keene, A. C. (2021). Flies sense the world while sleeping. Nature, 598(7881), 423–424. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02441-6
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Li, W., Wang, Z., Syed, S., Lyu, C., Lincoln, S., O’Neil, J., Nguyen, A. D., Feng, I., & Young, M. W. (2021). Chronic social isolation signals starvation and reduces sleep in Drosophila. Nature, 597(7875), 239–244. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03837-0
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Ahmad M, Li W, Top D. Integration of Circadian Clock Information in the Drosophila Circadian Neuronal Network. Journal of Biological Rhythms. 2021 Jun;36(3):203-220. DOI: 10.1177/0748730421993953. PMID: 33641476; PMCID: PMC8114447.
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Garaulet DL, Sun K, Li W, et al. miR-124 Regulates Diverse Aspects of Rhythmic Behavior in Drosophila. The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2016 Mar;36(12):3414-3421. DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3287-15.2016. PMID: 27013671; PMCID: PMC4804003.
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Shuai Y, Hirokawa A, Ai Y, et al. Dissecting neural pathways for forgetting in Drosophila olfactory aversive memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2015 Dec;112(48):E6663-72. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1512792112. PMID: 26627257; PMCID: PMC4672816.
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Campbell RA, Honegger KS, Qin H, et al. Imaging a population code for odor identity in the Drosophila mushroom body. The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2013 Jun;33(25):10568-10581. DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0682-12.2013. PMID: 23785169; PMCID: PMC3685844.
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Li W, Prazak L, Chatterjee N, et al. Activation of transposable elements during aging and neuronal decline in Drosophila. Nature Neuroscience. 2013 May;16(5):529-531. DOI: 10.1038/nn.3368. PMID: 23563579; PMCID: PMC3821974.