Faculty
Faculty
Yu Gu
Associate Professor
Principal Investigator
Yu Gu, Ph.D., Doctoral Supervisor. He received his bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in 2007 and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, USA, in 2014. From 2014 to 2017, he conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University, USA. In 2018, he joined the Institute of Brain Science at Fudan University. His primary research focuses on visual development and cognitive function circuits. He is dedicated to unraveling the neural mechanisms underlying the maturation of visual perception and the vision-dependent remodeling of cognitive function circuits. His findings have been published in leading academic journals and AI conferences, including Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Cell Reports, eLife, Journal of Neuroscience, and NeurIPS. He has led multiple projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and has received honors such as the Shanghai Rising-Star Award, the Shanghai Young Oriental Scholar, and the Shanghai Young Oriental Talent. Currently, he serves as a committee member of the Sensory and Motor Branch of the Chinese Neuroscience Society, a committee member of the Neurodegenerative Diseases Committee of the China Association for the Promotion of Health Science and Technology, and a young editorial board member of Neuroscience Bulletin, the official journal of the Chinese Neuroscience Society.
Contact Information
Address: 131 Dong An Road, Research Building B, Room CB1-047, Fudan University, Shanghai China 200032
Tel: 021-54237183
Email: guyu_@@fudan.edu.cn
Research Direction
Visual development and cognitive function circuits
Enrollment Major
Neurobiology
Research Work
Vision is a critical sensory input that not only shapes our perception of the external world but also participates in a wide range of cognitive and behavioral processes. Its dysfunction can serve as either a trigger or a manifestation of various visual disorders and brain diseases. Our research focuses on visual development and cognitive function circuits, aiming to elucidate: 1) the mechanisms underlying the formation of stereoscopic depth vision and approaches for functional restoration; 2) the central mechanisms by which vision contributes to emotional and cognitive functions, as well as strategies for their modulation; and 3) neural computational methods based on AI and biophysical simulation.
Selected Publications
Zhang YM, Han DQ*, Wang YS, Lv ZN, Gu Y*, Li DS(2025). SimSort: A Data-Driven Framework for Spike Sorting by Large-Scale Electrophysiology Simulation, in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2025
Hu G#, Chen A#, Ye J, Liu Q, Wang J, Fan C, Wang X, Huang M, Dai M, Shi X*, Gu Y*(2024). A developmental critical period for ocular dominance plasticity of binocular neurons in mouse superior colliculus. Cell Rep. 43(1):113667
Li CQ#, Sun TP#, Zhang YM#, Gao Y, Sun Z, Li W, Cheng HP, Gu Y*, Abumaria N*(2023). A neural circuit for regulating a behavioral switch in response to prolonged uncontrollability in mice. Neuron. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.05.023
Gu Y, Cang JH*(2016). Binocular matching of thalamocortical and intracortical circuits in the mouse visual cortex. eLife. 5:e22032
Gu Y#, Huang S#, Chang MC, Worley P, Kirkwood A*, Quinlan EM*(2013). Obligatory role for the immediate early gene NARP in critical period plasticity. Neuron. 79(2):335-346
Online Appointment
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