Peiyan Wong

Peiyan is an animal behavior neuroscientist who runs the behavioural phenotyping core facilities at Duke-NUS and at the Department of Pharmacology at NUS. In addition, she is the facilitator for the courses in the Phase 1 medical curriculum and the co-director of the GMS1000 module in the Office of Education. She has devoted much of her research career to understanding how the brain works. This is because she has always found the complex organisation of the human brain and the amazing cognitive abilities that it allows to be fascinating. Her work at the core facilities gives her the opportunity to work with animal models for a variety of neurological disorders. However, her personal interest lies in furthering the understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, by using mouse models that have dysregulated homeostasis of their neurotransmitter systems. She hopes that her work will contribute to the development of better therapeutic agents for these neuropsychiatric disorders.

Research

My research interests revolve around how the brain’s complex organisation and finely tuned neurotransmitter balance result in the incredible computational power that it possesses, and the large behavioural repertoire and amazing cognitive abilities that it exhibits. In particular, I am interested in gaining a better understanding of how the brain is organised, in terms of both gross parcellation of brain areas and the underlying circuitry connecting the areas. I believe that a better understanding of such functional neuroanatomy will help with investigations into how neuropsychiatric disorders arise from dysfunction of brain regions and networks.

Publications

1. Herculano-Houzel S, Collins CE, Wong P, and Kaas JH. 2007. Cellular scaling rules for primate brains.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2007; 104(9):3562-3567. JIF: 10.591; Times Cited: 288

1. Wong P, Gharbawie OA, Luethke LE, Kaas JH. Thalamic connections of architectonic subdivisions of temporal cortex in grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinenesis). Journal of Comparative Neurology 2008; 510(4):440-461. JIF: 4.043; Times Cited: 22.

2. Wong P and Kaas JH. Architectonic subdivisions of neocortex in the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). The Anatomical Record 2008; 219(10):1301-1333. JIF: 1.329; Times Cited: 55

3. Herculano-Houzel S, Collins CE, Wong P, Kaas JH and Lent R. The basic non-uniformity of the cerebral cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2008; 105(34):12593-12598. JIF: 10.591; Times Cited: 157

4. Wong P, Collins CE, Baldwin MKL and Kaas JH. Cortical connections of the visual pulvinar complex in prosimian galagos (Otolemur garnetti). Journal of Comparative Neurology 2009; 517(4):493-511. JIF: 4.043; Times Cited: 25.

5. Wong P and Kaas JH. Architectonic subdivisions of neocortex in the short-tailed opossums (Monodelphis domestica). Brain Behavior and Evolution 2009; 73(3):206-228. JIF: 2.251; Times Cited: 35.

6. Wong P and Kaas JH. Architectonic subdivisions of neocortex in tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri). The Anatomical Record 2009; 292(7):994-1027. JIF: 1.329; Times Cited: 53.

7. Gabi M, Collins CE, Wong P, Kaas JH, Herculano-Houzel S. Cellular scaling rules for an extended number of primate species. Brain Behavior and Evolution 2010; 76(1):32-44. JIF: 2.251; Times Cited: 81.

8. Herculano-Houzel S, Mota B, Wong P, Kaas JH. Connectivity-driven white matter scaling and folding in primate cerebral cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2010; 107(44):19008-19013. JIF: 10.591; Times Cited: 104.

9. Wong P and Kaas JH. Architectonic subdivisions of neocortex in the galago (Otolemur garnetti). The Anatomical Record, 2010; 293(6):1033-1069. JIF: 1.329; Times Cited: 49.

10. Baldwin MKL, Wong P, Reed JL, Kaas JH. Superior colliculus connections with visual thalamus in grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis): evidence for four subdivisions within the pulvinar complex. Journal of Comparative Neurology 2011; 519(6):1071-1094. JIF: 4.043; Times Cited: 42.

11. Qi H-X, Gharbawie OA, Wong P, Kaas JH. 2011. Cell-poor septa separate representations of digits in the ventroposterior nucleus of the thalamus in monkeys and prosimian galagos. Journal of Comparative Neurology 2011;519(4):738-748. JIF: 4.043; Times Cited: 21.

12. Wong P, Chang CCR, Marx CE, Caron MG, Wetsel WC, Zhang X. Pregnenolone rescues schizophrenia-like behavior in dopamine transporter knockout mice. PLOS ONE 2012; 7(12):e51455. JIF: 3.730; Times Cited: 46.

13. Wong P, Leo VL, Low, M, Mak TW, Zhang X, Reilly PT. Targeted ANP-32E mutant mice demonstrate no movement defects. PLOS ONE 2013; 8(5):e63815. JIF: 3.730; Times Cited: 6.

14. Wong P, Peebles JK, Asplund CL, Collins CE, Herculano-Houzel S, Kaas JH. Faster scaling of auditory neurons in cortical areas relative to subcortical structures. Brain Behavior and Evolution 2013; 81(4):209-218. JIF: 2.251; Times Cited: 10.

15. Collins CE, Leitch DB, Wong P, Airey DC, Kaas JH, Herculano-Houzel S.

Faster scaling of visual neurons in cortical areas relative to subcortical structures in non- human primate brains. Brain, Structure and Function 2013; 218: 805. JIF: 4.019; Times Cited: 29.

1. Nguyen LN, Ma D, Shui G, Wong P, Zhang X, Wenk MR, Goh ELK, Silver DL. Mfsd2a is a transporter for the essential omega-3 fatty acid DHA. Nature 2014; 509(7501):503-506. JIF: 38.600; Times Cited: 424.

2. Wong P, Sze Y, Gray LJ, Chang CCR, Cai S, Zhang X. Early life environmental and pharmacological stressors result in persistent dysregulations of the serotonergic system. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 2015; 9, 94. JIF: 3.300; Times Cited: 13.

3. Wong P, Sze Y, Chang CCR, Lee J, Zhang X. Pregnenolone sulfate normalizes schizophrenia-like behaviors in dopamine transporter knockout mice through AKT/GSK3β pathway. Translational Psychiatry 2015; 5(3):e528. JIF: 5.620; Times Cited: 30.

4. Tang FR, Loke WK, Wong P, Khoo BC. Radioprotective effect of ursolic acid in radiation-induced impairment of neurogenesis, learning and memory in adolescent BALB/c mouse. Physiology and Behaviour 2017; 175:35-46. JIF: 3.033; Times Cited: 7.

5. Ho WY, Chang JC, Tyan SH, Yen YC, Lim K, Tan BSY, Ong J, Tucker-Kellogg G, Wong P, Koo E, Ling SC. FUS-mediated dysregulation of Sema5a, an autism-related gene, in FUS mice with hippocampus-dependent cognitive deficits. Human Molecular Genetics 2019; 28(22): 3777–3791. JIF: 5.340; Times Cited: -.

6. Wang W, Xiang P, Chew WS, Torta F, Bandia A, Lopez V, Seow WL, Lam BWS, Chang JK, Wong P, Chayaburakul K, Ong WY, Wenk M, Sundar R, Herr DR. Activation of sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 2 attenuates chemotherapy-induced neuropathy. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2019; In press. JIF: 4.106; Times Cited: -.