Guoping Feng
Chinese-American neuroscientist
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Through Mental disorder, Schizophrenia and Gene therapy
Education
Feng received his PhD from SUNY Buffalo. He conducted his postdoctoral work at Washington University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the McGovern Institute in 2010, Feng was a faculty member at Duke University. He is currently the Poitras Professor of Neuroscience and the Director of Model Systems and Neurobiology in the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute.
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Research
Feng studies mutations of the postsynaptic density (PSD), the protein scaffold which stabilizes neurotransmitter receptors, permits normal function of the synapse, and participates in synaptic plasticity. He has demonstrated that mutations in SAPAP3, a gene primarily expressed in the striatum, are associated with repetitive grooming behaviors in mice, resembling repetitive behaviors observed in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and autism. SAPAP3's role in the Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. He has also shown that mutations in SHANK3, associated with Phelan McDermid syndrome (PMS), lead to autism-like symptoms such as repetitive behaviors, sensory hyper-sensitivity, and social deficits in mice. In 2016, Feng showed that gene therapy to restore normal SHANK3 function in adult mice could reverse some behavioral symptoms.
Feng also studies rare neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome and Williams syndrome. In 2018, Feng and colleague Robert Desimone received a grant of over $2.3 million USD to correct MECP2 mutations, which are the cause of Rett syndrome. In 2019, Feng and Zhigang He demonstrated that increasing myelination with the drug clemastine fumarate could reverse myelin deficits and hypersociability symptoms in mice lacking GTF2I, which may be translatable to human patients.