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Weill Institute for Cell & Molecular Biology

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Research Summary

Chun Han, PhD

Chun Han is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular biology. He received a BS degree in Cell Biology and Genetics from Peking University, China in 1999. In the same year, he started his Ph.D. research career at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Dr. Xinhua Lin’s lab, where he developed a love for Drosophila and microscopy. Fascinated by the beautiful dendritic arbors of Drosophila da neurons, he then joined the lab of Dr. Yuh Nung Jan as a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, San Francisco in 2006 to study the cell biology of these neurons. There he developed a system to study interactions between da neurons and surrounding tissues. In November 2013, he started his own lab at Cornell University. His lab studies how neurons develop diverse dendrite morphologies that are essential for their functions and how phagocytosis of neurons is regulated during neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration. His lab also develops novel genetic and cell biological tools in Drosophila, such as CRISPR and optogenetics. Dr. Han teaches Survey of Cell Biology (BIOMG4320). He is excited about mentoring postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students in their pursuits of scientific careers.

Selected Publications

Chen X, Wang B, Sarkar A, Huang Z, Ruiz NV, Yeung AT, Chen R, Han C. Phagocytosis-driven neurodegeneration through opposing roles of an ABC transporter in neurons and phagocytes. Sci Adv.. 2025;11(11):eadr5448. Epub 20250312. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr5448. PubMed PMID: 40073145; PMCID: PMC11900885.

Xu Y, Wang B, Bush I, Saunders HA, Wildonger J, Han C. In vivo optogenetic manipulations of endogenous proteins reveal spatiotemporal roles of microtubule and kinesin in dendrite patterning. Science Advances. 2024;10(35):eadp0138. doi: doi:10.1126/sciadv.adp0138

Ji H, Wang B, Shen Y, Labib D, Lei J, Chen X, Sapar M, Boulanger A, Dura JM, Han C. The Drosophila chemokine-like Orion bridges phosphatidylserine and Draper in phagocytosis of neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Jun 13;120(24):e2303392120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2303392120.

Ji H, Sapar ML, Sarkar A, Wang B, Han C. Phagocytosis and self-destruction break down dendrites of Drosophila sensory neurons at distinct steps of Wallerian degeneration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A January 25, 2022 doi: 10.1073/pnas.2111818119

Koreman GT, Hu Q, Xu Y, Zhang Z, Allen SE, Wolfner MF, Wang B, Han C. Upgraded CRISPR/Cas9 Tools for Tissue-Specific Mutagenesis in Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 April 6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2014255118

Allen SE, Koreman GT, Sarkar A, Wang B, Wolfner MF, Han C. Versatile CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mosaic analysis by gRNA-induced crossing-over for unmodified genomes. PLoS Biol. 2021;19(1):e3001061. Jan 14. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001061

Poe, A.R., Xu, Y., Zhang, C., Lei, J., Li, K., Labib, D., and Han, C., 2020. Low FoxO expression in Drosophila somatosensory neurons protects dendrite growth under nutrient restriction. eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.53351.

Poe AR, Wang B, Sapar ML, Ji H, Li K, Onabajo T, Fazliyeva R, Gibbs M, Qiu Y, Hu Y, Han C. Robust CRISPR/Cas9-mediated tissue specific mutagenesis reveals gene redundancy and perdurance in Drosophila. Genetics. 2018 Early online November 30, 2018; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.118.301736

Sapar ML, Ji H, Wang B, Poe AR, Dubey K, Ren X, Ni J, Han C. Phosphatidylserine externalization results from and causes neurite degeneration in Drosophila. Cell Reports. 2018 Aug 28. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2018.07.095

Poe AR, Tang L, Wang B, Li Y, Sapar ML, Han C. Dendritic space-filling requires a neuronal type-specific extracellular permissive signal in Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Sep 5. pii: 201707467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1707467114.

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Published on May 23, 2014 in Research SummaryFull resolution (950 × 934)

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