I am a postdoctoral research scientist with Richard Axel and Michael Shadlen at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University. Previously, I did my Ph.D. in Neurobiology with Catherine Dulac at Harvard University. I was a Junior Fellow at the Simons Society of Fellows. I am also an ISFS Fellow of the inaugural Intersections Science Fellows Symposium, an initiative intersecting science and diversity to support future leaders in STEM.

zw2308 [at] columbia [dot] edu

Publications

• Context-dependent decision making in a premotor circuit. Z Wu, A Litwin-Kumar, P Shamash, A Taylor, R Axel, MN Shadlen. Neuron 106, 316-328 (2020).
    Preview Taken out of Context: A Novel Cognitive Role for a Premotor Circuit
  We developed a cognitively demanding task to study flexible decision making in mice using electrophysiological, imaging, optogenetic, and computational methods. A motor area, previously thought to primarily guide movement, computes the decision locally and represents the perceptual information in a novel population of Layer 2 cells.
• Transient and persistent representations of odor value in prefrontal cortex. PY Wang, C Boboila, M Chin, A Higashi-Howard, P Shamash, Z Wu, NP Stein, LF Abbott, R Axel. Neuron 108, 209-224 (2020).
  We demonstrated the transformation of a representation of odor identity in piriform cortex into transient and persistent representations of value in the prefrontal cortex.
• Multisensory Logic of Infant-Directed Aggression by Males. Y Isogai, Z Wu, MI Love, MHY Ahn, D Bambah-Mukku, V Hua, K Farrell, C Dulac. Cell 175, 1827-1841 (2018)
  We identified 7 vomeronasal receptors and 2 compounds responsible for infant-directed attack in mice. These attacks rely on the combination of parental and infant chemical cues as well as distinctive infant morphological traits.
• Neural control of maternal and paternal behaviors. C Dulac, LA O’Connell, Z Wu. Science 345, 765-770 (2014)
  We synthesized recent progress in the field of parental behavior and provided a framework for future investigation.
• Galanin neurons in the medial preoptic area govern parental behaviour. Z Wu, AE Autry, JF Bergan, M Watabe-Uchida, C Dulac. Nature 509, 325-330 (2014)
    Nature News and Views To care or not to care
    The Boston Globe Front Page Story Brain circuits that control parental behavior
    The Scientist The Infanticidal-to-Paternal Switch
    Harvard Magazine The Mr. Mom Switch
    Harvard MCB News The hand that rocks the cradle
  We performed the first genetic characterization of command-like neurons for parental behavior in vertebrates. This study laid the groundwork for further examination of the circuitry (Kohl et al. Nature 2018) and neuronal populations (Moffitt et al. Science 2018) involved in parenting. This body of work was recognized by the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

Preprints

• Perifornical area urocortin-3 neurons promote infant-directed neglect and aggression. AE Autry, Z Wu, J Kohl, D Bambah-Mukku, ND Rubinstein, B Marin-Rodriguez, I Carta, V Sedwick, C Dulac. bioRxiv, 697334 (2019)
  We uncovered the genetically defined neuronal population critical for infant-directed aggression. Together with my study of the galanin neurons, we provided the entry points and a new framework to investigate the positive and negative regulation of parenting and the neural basis of social behavior.

Talks

• NeuroLaunchpad, A virtual seminar series for rising neuroscientists, Dec 2020
• Frontiers in Neuropsychiatry Seminars series, Weill Cornell Medicine, Jun 2020
• Postdoctoral Seminar series, Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University, May 2020
• Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Feb 2020
• Neuroscience Institute, New York University Langone Medical Center, Jan 2020
• Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne) main meeting, Lisbon, Mar 2019 (delivered by Michael Shadlen due to my visa issues)
• Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov 2018
• Sense2Synapse, The Rockefeller University, May 2018
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, April 2018
• Cold Spring Harbor conference on Neuronal Circuits, April 2018
• Simons Society of Fellows Annual Retreat, Bal Harbour, Mar 2017
• Society for Social Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Washington DC, Nov 2014

Professional Service

• Zuckerman Institute Postdoc Seminars (ZIPS) organizing committee, Columbia University, 2019-2020
• Editorial Board, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 2016-
• Ad hoc reviewer for Science, Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, etc. 2014-
• Founder and Director, SEED for Social Innovation, 2012-
• Science by the Pint: a science outreach program to the general public, 2012
• Mentor, HHMI Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP), 2011
• External reviewer for creating a course on molecular neuroanatomy, Allen Institute for Brain Science, 2011