Education

Ph.D., Neuroscience, Northwestern University, 2012

B.S., Neuroscience, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, 2006

Bio

Dr. Bor-Shuen Wang completed his undergraduate training at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He then studied experience-dependent visual cortical development with Dr. Jianhua Cang and earned his doctoral degree in Neuroscience from Northwestern University. He completed his post-doctoral with Dr. Josh Huang at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he investigated how the early cortical development shapes the inhibitory interneuron function. Dr. Wang joined the faculty of St. Joseph’s University, New York as an assistant professor in fall 2021. He teaches the following biology major courses: Physiology (BIO 335), Cell Biology (BIO 460), and Neuroscience (BIO 462). He also teaches Anatomy & Physiology I and II (BIO 160/161) for non-biology majors.

Scholarly & Professional Interests

My research seeks to understand how the environment during early development shapes the function of the sensory nervous system. Right from the time we were born (and even prior to that), our brains become swamped with sensory information from our surroundings, triggering a reconfiguration of our neural pathways. This reconfiguration empowers us to understand language, perform complex sensory tasks, develop advanced motor skills, and grasp the nuances of social interactions. I am interested in understand how the external sensory input guides the formation of neural circuits in the olfactory system utilizing Drosophila melanogaster as the model organism.

Olfaction is one of the oldest senses allowing organisms to identify food, potential mating partners, danger and enemies. Therefore, the ability to sense odor is directly associated with essential behaviors such as fight or flight response, courting behavior, and feeding. Our goal is to understand the mechanisms by which early development instruct network connectivity and function in olfactory circuits. We also wish to understand how these experiential changes shape behavior. Our work employs cellular and physiological techniques including optogenetics and chemogenetics to reveal the physiological functions of sensory organ-to-brain circuits.   

Select Publications

Wang, B., Bernardez Sarria, M., An, X., He, M., Alam, A., Prusky, G., Crair, M., Huang, Z.J. (2020) Retinal and callosal activity-dependent chandelier cell elimination shapes binocularity in primary visual cortex. Neuron. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.11.004.

*Krishnan, K., *Wang, B., Lu, J., Wang, L., Maffei, A., Cang, J., and Huang, Z. J. (2015) MeCP2
regulates the timing of critical period plasticity that shapes functional connectivity in primary
visual cortex. PNAS. 112(34):E4782-91. *equal contribution

Wang, B., Feng, L., Liu, M., Liu, X., and Cang, J. (2013) Environmental enrichment rescues
binocular matching in mice that have a precocious critical period. Neuron. 80(1):198-209.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2013.07.023.

Wang, B., Sarnaik R., and Cang, J. (2010) Critical period plasticity matches binocular orientation preference in the visual cortex. Neuron. 65(2):246-256.