Wanli W. Smith is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the director of Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory. She received her MD in clinical medicine and M.S. in pharmacology at Xi’an Medical University, PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Beijing Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, China. She pursued post-doctoral work in laboratories of Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Institute on Aging, NIH and Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neurobiology, at Johns Hopkins. Her research interest is currently directed towards understanding the molecular pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s disease. Her research goals are to generate cell, fly and mouse models for human diseases, to elucidate the molecular signaling pathways of these disorders, to identify potential therapeutic targets and to develop novel therapeutics.