Guoping Feng

Early in his career, Feng generated lines for conditional expression of fluorescent proteins (stop-YFP lines), optogenetic tools and cre recombinase, all freely available to and much used by the neuroscience community. He used many of these lines for the molecular genetic analyses of roles that several proteins play in the formation of synapses. He then used his insights into synaptogenesis to develop models of psychiatric disorders including OCD, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder and, most prominently, autism. His work has led to new ways of thinking about how mouse models can be used to analyze complex behavioral abnormalities.