News

May 2023
Zhiping won the 2022-2023 Presidential Outstanding Faculty Award! See https://academicaffairs.rutgers.edu/2022-2023-faculty-year-end-excellence-award-recipients for more details. Congratulations!
May 2023
Rohan was awarded a summer undergraduate research fellowship by the Honors Life Sciences program!
April 2023
Congratulations to Xiao! She received a pre-doctoral fellowship grant from the Autism Science Foundation to investigate the impact of ASD genetic mutations using iPSCs. To learn more, visit this page: https://autismsciencefoundation.org/press_releases/2023-fellowships-early-career-researchers/
January 2023
Andrew Boreland, PhD candidate, was recently highlighted by the Rutgers Biotechnology Training Program. Click the link to learn more: https://biotechnology.rutgers.edu/spotlight/andrew-boreland


November 2022

Le Wang, PhD published a paper titled “Analyses of the autism-associated neuroligin-3 R451C mutation in human neurons reveal a gain-of-function synaptic mechanism”. See the following link for a highlight of Le’s work by Rutgers University:
https://www.rutgers.edu/news/gene-mutation-leading-autism-found-overstimulate-brain-cells
Aug 16th, 2022Yulia Hapiak successfully presented her Masters Thesis Defense
See below images from Yulia’s defense and celebration
August 2022
Congratulations to Denise Robles! She has been awarded an NJ Autism Governor’s Council Graduate Fellowship.
July 2022Betti Pang of Pennsylvania and Eleonora Nilsen of Sweden joined the Pang Lab as summer high school interns.
July 2022
Congratulations to Xiao Su! She won a travel award and best poster award at the 2022 SCBA meeting in Boston.
May 2022

Congratulations to Yara Abbo! She won the Henry Rutgers Scholar Award for her outstanding research and undergraduate thesis.
April 7th, 2020Marisa Joel presented her Undergraduate Honors Thesis Defense
See below images from Marisa’s Honors Thesis Defense
April 2nd, 2020Nidhi Desai presented her Undergraduate Honors Thesis Defense
See below images from Nidhi’s Honors Thesis Defense
July 2019We are awarded an NIH BRAIN Initiative grant!
January 2018Qili Yu, PhD, joined the Pang Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow in January 2018.
January 2018Matthew Scarnati, PhD, joined the Pang Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow in January 2018.
November 2017Ji Liu, PhD published a paper titled, “Enhanced AMPA receptor trafficking mediates the anorexigenic effect of endogenous glucagon-like peptide-1 in the paraventricular hypothalamus.”  The paper was featured by The Journal Neuron.
October 2017JingJing Liu, PhD was invited to give a talk at the 12th Biennial Conference of the Chinese Neuroscience Society in Tianjing in October, 2017.  The speaker panel included scientists from Harvard, Yale, Switzerland and China.  Dr. Liu shared her recent results on “Decoding the synaptic mechanism of melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) in the lateral septum neurocircuitry” with the audience.
October 2017JingJing Liu, PhD published a paper titled, “Pre-synaptic regulation of leptin in a defined lateral hypothalamus–ventral tegmental area neurocircuitry depends on energy state” in The Journal of Neuroscience. The paper provided important synaptic mechanisms describing how the hormone Leptin controls feeding and how dysfunction in its signaling leads to obesity.
October 2017Pang Lab collaborated on a published paper: “μNeurocircuitry: establishing in vitro models of neurocircuits with human neurons.” Joseph A. Fantuzzo JA, De Filippis L, McGowan H, Yang N, Ng YH, Halikere A, Liu JJ, Hart RP, Wernig M, Zahn JD and Pang ZP. Technology; 5(2):87-95, 2017.
October 2017Pang Lab collaborated on a published paper: “Open Chromatin Profiling in hiPSC-Derived Neurons Prioritizes Functional Noncoding Psychiatric Risk Variants and Highlights Neurodevelopmental Loci” Forrest MP, Zhang H, Moy W, McGowan H, Leites C, Dionisio LE, Xu Z, Shi J, Sanders AR, Greenleaf WJ, Cowan CA, Pang ZP, Gejman PV, Penzes P and Duran J. Cell Stem Cell; 21: 1-14, 2017.
September 2017Apoorva Halikere, BA, was one of 4 students selected as recipients of the 2017-2018 Shatkin Scholarship, which recognizes a student’s academic and scholarly accomplishments in graduate school.
July 2017Zhiping Pang, MD, PhD, received a continuation of funding award for the 2nd year by the Governor’s Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism.  Grant titled, “Regulation of MeCP2 by microRNAs and implications in the pathophysiology of autism. (period July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018). 
July 2017Dina Popova, PhD, received a travel award to attend the International Narcotics Research Conference (INRC) on “The Study of Opiods” in Chicago, IL from July 9-14, 2017.
April 2017Heather McGowan successfully defended her PhD Thesis on April 24, 2017! Thesis titled, “Implications for chromosone 21-encoded mIRNAs and MeCP2 in synaptic dysfunction in trisomy 21.”  Heather officially graduated from the Rutgers GSBS and earned her PhD.  She will join the RWJMS to earn her MD.
February 2016Dr. Zhiping Pang’s Laboratory and Dr. Prabhas Moghe’s Laboratory collaborated on a paper that was accepted in Nature Communication, titled “Generation and Brain-Transplantation of 3-D Microscale Networks of Reprogrammed Human Neurons.”
February 2016Vincent Mirabella, MD/PhD Candidate, was awarded a NIH NIMH F30, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Pre-doctoral Fellowship.
January 2016Dr. Ji Liu was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association for this research project, titled “GLP-1 neural circuit in PVN regulate food intake.”
December 2015Heather McGowan received an Aaron Shatkin Graduate Scholarship Award of $3,000.  The annual scholarships are awarded to graduate students who exhibit excellence in academics and research and are supported by funds raised at the RWJ Medical School Annual Scholarship Gala.
December 2015Heather McGowan and Apoorva Halikere were featured on LabTV; a collaboration between Rutgers media and the NIH funded LabTV Channel to promote NIH funded researchers.
 http://www.labtv.com/Home/Profile?researcherId=2000http://www.labtv.com/Home/Profile?researcherid=2050.          
November2015Vincent Mirabella, MD/PhD Candidate, received the 2015 NIMH MD/PhD Molecular Psychiatry Travel Award.
August 2015Apoorva Halikere was awarded a NIH-NIAAA F31, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship “Neuronal basis of OPRM1 A118G polymorphism in alcohol use disorders.”
July 2015Xuefeng Wang, JingJing Liu, Julia Xia, Ji Liu, Vince Mirabella and Zhiping Pang collaborated on a paper that was accepted in Cell Reports titled, “GLP1 regulation synaptic transmission.” 
June 2015Apoorva Halikere starts her two month international collaboration under the NSF IGERT fellowship support in Guangzhou, China.
June 2015Heather McGowan won a TS21 Research Society travel award and presented a poster at the Trisomy 21 Research Symposium in Paris, France.
June 2015Trevor Alston, a bioengineering undergraduate, joined the Pang Lab for the summer.
June 2015Abdulraouf Abdulraouf, an Aresty Summer Student, joined the Pang Lab.
May 2015Dr. Zhiping Pang was an invited speaker at Shanghai Jiaotong University of China and at Shinshu University School of Medicine in Matsumoto, Japan.
May 2015NIcole Mlynaryk graduated from Rutgers with the highest honor and was awarded a NIH Postbac IRTA Fellowship.
May 2015Julia Xia graduated from Rutgers with the highest honor; was inducted into Matthew Leydt Society; won Fulbright Scholar support for one year; Henry Rutgers Scholar; and was admitted to Emory University School of Medicine.
January 2015Dr. Jeff Zahn started his sabbatical in the Pang Lab.
Sept. 2014Ji Liu joined the Pang Lab.
August 2014Vincent Mirabella, MD, PhD student joined the Pang Lab.
June 2014Joseph Fantuzzo joined the Pang Lab as a visiting student from the Rutgers School of Bioengineering.
June 2014Katarina Cruz (Amherst), SURP student joined the Pang Lab for the Summer.
May 2014Aziz Karakhanyan graduated from Rutgers; won Henry Rutgers Scholar award; admitted to Harvard Medical School Neuroscience graduate program.
May 2014Heather McGowan was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Fellowship for Individual Predoctoral PhD Degree Fellows (F31).
April 2014Apoorva Halikere, National Science Foundation GRFP Honorable Mention.
April 2014Lidia DeFilippis joined the Pang Lab.
January 2014  Dr. Nick Bello started his sabbatical in the Pang Lab.
Oct. 7 2013Zhiping’s PhD advisor Thomas C. Südhof won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013!! Congratulations to Tom!!
Sept. 2013Jingjing Liu joined the Pang Lab.
Sept. 2013  Aula Hamod joined the Pang Lab. 
August 2013  Apoorva Halikere joined the Pang Lab.Apporva was awrded the IGERT gradate fellowship support. 
July 2013Jessica Lukacs was accepted into Virginia University School of Medicine.
June 2013Ben Mansky, SURP.
June 2013Sammy Othman, Aresty Summer Research Fellow.
June 2013Julia Xia, SIPGA fellow, Singapore
April 2013Julia Xia in Rutgers news
Jan. 2013Nicole Mlynaryk joined the lab.
Jan. 2013Xuefeng Wang joined the lab.
Oct. 2012Jessica Lukacs joined the lab.
Sept. 2012Yuefei Huang joined the lab.
Aug. 2012Heather McGowan joined the lab.
Jul. 2012Zhiping Pang was awarded the Freedman Award from BBRF!
May 2012Congratulations to Aziz Karakhanya on his SURP fellowship!
May 2012Congratulations to Julia Xia on her Aresty research fellowship!
Jan. 2012Guohui Li joined the lab as a Research Assistant.
Nov. 1, 2011Pang Lab was born.