Yanjun Sun
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Department of Neurology and Anatomy
The Sun lab aims to elucidate the neural circuit mechanisms that underlie learning and memory, with a focus on spatial navigation and contextual representation in both health and disease. Understanding one’s environment and remembering relevant context are essential for survival, and the hippocampus plays a central role in these processes. We are particularly interested in how the hippocampus and subiculum encode complex features of the environment—such as boundaries, corners, and 3D geometry—and how these representations guide behavior and memory formation.
Our lab combines in vivo calcium imaging, viral-genetic circuit mapping, single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and computational modeling to investigate how specific cell types in the hippocampal formation contribute to spatial coding, memory, and disease-related circuit alterations. For example, we recently discovered that distinct populations of subicular neurons encode concave and convex geometric features—providing insight into how the brain reconstructs spatial layout. We also identified hippocampal neurons that are selectively engaged during drug-context associations, laying the groundwork for developing targeted interventions for addiction.
Tutorial students in our lab may work on projects involving in vivo calcium imaging of neural activity in freely behaving mice, mapping neural circuits using viral-genetic tools, analyzing high-dimensional neural and behavioral data, building AI-empowered computational models, or performing molecular profiling of behaviorally relevant neurons. Students will gain hands-on experience in modern neuroscience techniques, advanced data science tools, and hypothesis-driven experimental design.
Education & Training
PhD, University of California, Irving, 2017