Chao Peng, PhD

Dr. Peng obtained his PhD degree in Developmental Biology from Fudan University. Then, He joined Dr. Virginia Lee’s lab at University of Pennsylvania as a postdoctoral fellow and expanded his research from basic neuroscience to neurodegenerative diseases. In 2020, Dr. Peng joined UCLA as an Assistant Professor. His research focuses on exploring the genetic and environmental risk factors that modulate the transmission of pathological alpha-synuclein and tau in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple system atrophy. He develops cutting edge disease models and applies powerful genetic, multi-omics, structural and high through-put screen methods to investigate the molecular mechanisms regulating the transmission process and explore the conformational diversity of pathological alpha-synuclein and tau in diseased brain. He also develops novel strategies to block the transmission process of pathological proteins in neurodegenerative diseases as potential future therapies for these diseases.