Email

xiaolonj@bcm.edu

Positions

Investigator

Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital
Houston, Texas United States

Associate Professor

Department of Neuroscience
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX US

Associate Professor

Department of Ophthalmology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Addresses

1250 Moursund St. (Office)

Suite 0925.15
Houston, TX 77030
United States
Phone: (832) 824-8123
xiaolonj@bcm.edu

1250 Moursund St (Lab)

Suite 0925
Houston, TX 77479
United States
Phone: (832) 824-8128
https://www.bcm.edu/research/labs/xiaolong-jiang

Education

Advanced Training from University Of Virginia

01/2011 - Charlottesville, VA United States

BMed from Zhejiang University School Of Medicine

06/1998 - Hangzhou, China, People's Rep

PhD from Uniformed Services University Of The Health Sciences

05/2007 - Bethesda, Maryland United States

Professional Interests

• Dissecting the cortical microcircuit in health and disease; connectopathies in epilepsy and autism-spectrum disorders

Professional Statement

Each brain region is composed of distinct neuronal cell types with characteristic morphological, electrophysiological, and molecular properties, and these cell types are wired in a specific manner to form a functional circuit. A mechanistic understanding of the workings of the normal and pathological brain requires identifying all of the constituent cell types, mapping their interconnections, and determining their functions.

Our laboratory at the Baylor College of Medicine and Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital focuses on three related questions regarding brain circuits: 1) How many cell types are there in each brain region and how they connect each other to form a normal, functional circuit; 2) what are unique cell types and organization principles that may have been evolved to endow the primate brain with superb computational capabilities for the complex cognitive processes characteristic of primates; 3) How stereotypical wiring principles among cell types are impacted by distinct neuropsychiatric conditions?

To this end, we developed and employ a multi-disciplinary approach that includes multi-cell patch recording (up to 12 simultaneous recordings), morphological recovery, single-cell RNA sequencing, optogenetic techniques, and machine learning. Using this integrated approach, we perform large-scale, multidisciplinary profiling of individual neurons in a brain circuit, including their electrophysiological properties, morphology, transcriptome, and connections, to decipher the comprehensive circuit blueprint in different brain regions across species. We also use sophisticated mouse genetic models, in vivo whole-cell recordings, two-photon calcium imaging, and behavioral assays to dissect the functional roles of each cell type in the information processing.

In parallel, we use the same approach to decipher aberrant connections between specific cell types (connectopathies) underlying neuropsychiatric disorders, including epilepsy, autism spectrum disorders, and schizophrenia. Extensive research has been done to probe these disorders at genetic/molecular, macro-scale, and behavior levels. However, at the meso-scale level, how each neuropsychiatric condition impacts the circuit blueprint remains largely unknown. Furthermore, for each brain disorder, etiologies could be highly diverse despite shared symptomatology and EEG signature, raising the possibility that different etiologies induce the same circuit wiring deficits that result in the same phenotypes. Identifying the stereotypical circuit deficits for a specific type of neuropsychiatric disease paves the way for more universal, circuit-based cell-type specific interventions for these diseases.

Websites

Selected Publications

• Jiang X, Wang G, Lee J, Stornetta R, Zhu JJ "The organization of two new interneuronal circuits." Nat Neurosci. 2013 Jan 13;16(2):210-8. Pubmed PMID: 23313910
• Jiang X, Shen S, Cadwell CR, Berens P, Sinz FH, Ecker A, Patel S, Tolias AT "The principles of connectivity among morphologically defined neuronal types in adult neocortex." Science. 2015 Nov 27;350(6264) Pubmed PMID: 26612957
• Cadwell CR, Palasantza A, Jiang X, Berens B, Deng Q, Yilmaz M, Reimer J, Bethge M, Tolias KF, Sandberg R and Tolias AS "Electrophysiological, transcriptomic and morphologic profiling of single neurons using Patch-seq.." Nature Biotechnology. 2015 Dec 21;34(2):199-203. Pubmed PMID: 26689543
• Federico Scala, Dmitry Kobak,nus, Cathryn Rene Cadwell, , Saumil Surendra Patel, Rickard Sandberg, Philipp Berens, Xiaolong Jiang & Andreas Savas Tolias "Layer 4 of mouse neocortex differs in cell types and circuit organization between sensory areas." Nat Communication. 2019 Sep 13;10(1):4174. Pubmed PMID: 31519874

Funding

Deciphering the building blocks of the macaque prefrontal cortical microcircuit - #MH120404

(07/01/2019 - 06/30/2024) Grant funding from NIMH

Development of aberrant cortical interneuron circuitry in genetic mouse models of absence epilepsy - #NS102609-01A1

(04/01/2020 - 03/31/2025) Grant funding from NINDS

Deciphering circuit-level mechanisms underlying intrinsic epileptogenicity of cortical tubers in TSC - #W81XWH-19-1-0079

(04/01/2019 - 04/01/2021) Grant funding from DOD

Deciphering the transcriptomic signatures, physiology and connectivity of the specialized morphotypes in macaque anterior insula - #MH122169

(04/01/2020 - 03/31/2025) Grant funding from NIMH

Skills

Electrophysiology

Single-cell RNA sequencing