A/Prof. Li-Hong Sheng

Research Direction
The function of glia regulating ageing and neurodegenerative disease
Contact Information
Address: Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, 131 Dong An Rd, Shanghai China 200032  
Email：shenglihong@fudan.edu.cn

Dr. Lihong Sheng received her Ph.D degree from Chinese Academy of Sciences  in 2016. From 2016 to 2021, she was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Cell and Development Biology at University of Pennsylvania. She joined the institute of brain science in Fudan University in 2021 as an associate professor.  She has published varies scientific journals, including Science Advance, Cell, Science, BMC biology, etc.

Aging is a complex and progressive biological process involving extensive chronic changes in multiple organs and tissues, which is associated with many diseases. It is widely accepted that plastic changes in the brain underpin aging-related cognitive decline and neurodegeneration but less is known about the neuroprotective pathways that forestall these processes in healthy aging brains. In mammals, glia composition and properties display age-related dynamics including a shift to a more neuroprotective function as the brain ages. In Drosophila, glial cells are also implicated in regulating brain health and lifespan, underscoring a deep evolutionary conservation of glia function. We will use the Drosophila as a model and apply high-throughput sequencing (scRNA-seq, SMART-seq and ATAC-seq, etc.) combined with bioinformatics, molecular biology, genetics and behavior tests to study the physiological function of glial cells and explore the molecular mechanisms in regulating aging and neurodegeneration disease.

Selected Publications

1. Sheng L#, Shields EJ#, Gospocic J, Glastad KM, Ratchasanmuang P, Berger SL, Raj A, Little S, Bonasio R*(2020). Social reprogramming in ants induces longevity-associated glia remodeling. Sci Adv. 6(34):eaba9869 (#Contributed equally)

2. Gospocic J#, Glastad KM#, Sheng L, Shields EJ, Berger SL*, Bonasio R*(2021). Kr-h1 maintains distinct caste-specific neurotranscriptomes in response to socially regulated hormones. Cell. 184(23):5807-23. e14

3. Shields EJ, Sorida M, Sheng L, Sieriebriennikov B, Ding L, Bonasio R*(2021). Genome annotation with long RNA reads reveals new patterns of gene expression and improves single-cell analyses in an ant brain. BMC Biology. 19(1):1-19

4. Nicetto D, Donahue G, Jain T, Peng T, Sidoli S, Sheng L, Montavon T, Becker JS, Grindheim JM, Blahnik K, Garcia BA, Tan K, Bonasio R, Jenuwein T, Zaret KS*(2019). H3K9me3-heterochromatin loss at protein-coding genes enables developmental lineage specification. Science. 363(6424):294-297

5. Shields EJ, Sheng L, Weiner AK, Garcia BA, Bonasio R*(2018). High-Quality Genome Assemblies Reveal Long Non-coding RNAs Expressed in Ant Brains. Cell Rep. 23(10):3078-3090