Yingxi Lin, Ph.D.

Dr. Yingxi Lin joined UT Southwestern in December 2023. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Chief of the Psychiatry Neuroscience Research Division. She is also a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and an Investigator in the O’Donnell Brain Institute. Originally from China, Dr. Lin studied Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University and received her Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University. She conducted her postdoctoral research under Dr. Michael Greenberg at Harvard Medical School. She was Assistant Professor (2009-2015) and Associate Professor (2015-2018) at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to her current role, she was Full Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Dr. Lin’s research focuses on uncovering molecular and circuit mechanisms in neurodevelopment, memory formation, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Employing a broad array of multi-disciplinary experimental techniques, work in her lab spans analyses from the genomic and molecular level to synapse, circuit, and whole animal behavioral levels.

Graduate School

Harvard University (1999), Physics

• Excitatory and inhibitory balance within neural circuits
• Mechanisms of learning and memory
• Neurodevelopment and neurodevelopmental disorders
• Neurogenetic tool development

Featured Publications

Spatiotemporal Mapping and Molecular Basis of Whole-brain Circuit Maturation

Xue, J., Brawner, A.T., Thompson, J.R., Yelhekar, T.D., Newmaster, K.T., Qiu, Q., Cooper, Y.A., Yu, C.R., Ahmed-Braima, Y.H., Kim, Y., Lin, Y. bioRxiv 2024

Functionally distinct NPAS4-expressing somatostatin interneuron ensembles critical for motor skill learning.

Yang J, Serrano P, Yin X, Sun X, Lin Y, Chen SX, Neuron 2022 Sep

Functionally Distinct Neuronal Ensembles within the Memory Engram.

Sun X, Bernstein MJ, Meng M, Rao S, Sørensen AT, Yao L, Zhang X, Anikeeva PO, Lin Y, Cell 2020 Apr 181 2 410-423.e17

Npas4 Is a Critical Regulator of Learning-Induced Plasticity at Mossy Fiber-CA3 Synapses during Contextual Memory Formation.

Weng FJ, Garcia RI, Lutzu S, Alviña K, Zhang Y, Dushko M, Ku T, Zemoura K, Rich D, Garcia-Dominguez D, Hung M, Yelhekar TD, Sørensen AT, Xu W, Chung K, Castillo PE, Lin Y, Neuron 2018 03 97 5 1137-1152.e5

HDAC5 and Its Target Gene, Npas4, Function in the Nucleus Accumbens to Regulate Cocaine-Conditioned Behaviors.

Taniguchi M, Carreira MB, Cooper YA, Bobadilla AC, Heinsbroek JA, Koike N, Larson EB, Balmuth EA, Hughes BW, Penrod RD, Kumar J, Smith LN, Guzman D, Takahashi JS, Kim TK, Kalivas PW, Self DW, Lin Y, Cowan CW Neuron 2017 Sep 96 1 130-144.e6

A robust activity marking system for exploring active neuronal ensembles.

Sørensen AT, Cooper YA, Baratta MV, Weng FJ, Zhang Y, Ramamoorthi K, Fropf R, LaVerriere E, Xue J, Young A, Schneider C, Gøtzsche CR, Hemberg M, Yin JC, Maier SF, Lin Y Elife 2016 Sep 5

Npas4: Linking Neuronal Activity to Memory.

Sun X, Lin Y Trends Neurosci. 2016 Mar

Increased cell-intrinsic excitability induces synaptic changes in new neurons in the adult dentate gyrus that require npas4.

Sim S, Antolin S, Lin CW, Lin YX, Lois C J. Neurosci. 2013 May 33 18 7928-40

Npas4 regulates a transcriptional program in CA3 required for contextual memory formation.

Ramamoorthi K, Fropf R, Belfort GM, Fitzmaurice HL, McKinney RM, Neve RL, Otto T, Lin Y, Science 2011 Dec 334 6063 1669-75

The contribution of GABAergic dysfunction to neurodevelopmental disorders.

Ramamoorthi K, Lin Y, Trends Mol Med 2011 Aug 17 8 452-62

 Featured Books

All IEGs are not created equal: Molecular sorting within the memory engram. In Engram: A Window Into the Memory Trace

Yelhekar TD, Meng M, Doupe J, Lin Y (). Springer Nature

Nature and nurture converge in the nucleus to regulate activity-dependent neuronal development. In Transcriptional Regulation by Neuronal Activity; To the nucleus and back; 2nd edition

Thompson JR, Lin Y (). Springer-Nature

• Deans Award for Scientific Excellence
  SUNY Upstate Medical University (2019)
• NARSAD Independent Investigator Grant
  (2015-2017)
• Paul and Lilah Newton Brain Science Award
  (2015-2017)
• Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
  (2014)
• Fay/Frank Seed Grant Award
  Brain Research Foundation (2013)
• Fred and Carole Middleton Career Development Professorship
  (2011-2014)
• John Merck Scholar Award
  (2010)

• Molecular and Cellular Cognition Society (2016)
• Society for Neuroscience (2008)