Located at the Waisman Center of University of Wisconsin-Madison, our laboratory is part of the Department of Neuroscience and Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Center.   We strive to adapt, develop, and integrate state-of-art approaches to investigate the molecular mechanisms regulating brain development and neurodevelopmental disorders

Contact Phone: (608) 890-4392; LinkedIn; ‪@xyzhaolab.bsky.social‬

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News

• Dec 2025: Congratulations to Jiyoun Lee (NTP third year) for passing preliminary exams!
• Nov: Xinyu Zhao chaired a symposium “Mitochondrial Dynamics and Energy Metabolism in Neurodevelopmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders” in 2025 Society for Neuroscience Annual meeting (Nov 15-19, San Diego, CA)
• Oct 2025:Xinyu Zhao gave a keynote presentation at 2025 Golisano and Del Monte Neuroscience Symposium, “Inside the Brain: Mapping Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities”, with a podcast interview by John Foxe the Director of Neuroscience Institute (stay tuned)
• Sep 2025: Congratulations to Arina Baranoff, Nasteha Sahal for being selected as new fellow and  Gwen Roter  for continuing as a second year fellow of Simons Foundation’s Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience (SURFiN) scholarships and their mentors Yu Gao, Jiyoun Lee, and Zhiyan Xu.
• Sep 2025: seean article written by freshman Anoushka Karr about undergraduate research in our lab.
• Aug 2025: Congratulations to Natasha Mendez for receiving 2025 Friends of Waisman Center Graduate Student Award.
• Congratulations to Paofue Yang for being awarded the 2025 Morris Aprison Undergraduate Research Scholarship.
• July 2025: We have had another successful Lab Annual Data Blitz. Congratulations to the presenters (Manus, Christian, Gwen, Lily, Jenna, Ruthika, Arina, Paofue, Ethan, Drew, Charlie, Anna, and Mahika) and their mentors (Yu, Zhiyan, Natasha, Soraya, Kristy, Carissa, Jiyoun, and Audrey). We thank Magnus for organizing the event!
• July 2025: Welcome Maya Evans (PhD from University of Iowa) as new postdoctoral fellow in our lab! Congratulations to Maya for being award iPEND postdoctoral fellowship.
• June 2025: Congratulations to Yu Gao for receiving an NIH R21 (high risk high gain) grant award to investigate cell type-specific protein ubiquitome for a better understanding of a neurodevelopmental disorder, Angelman Syndrome.
• June 2025: Xinyu Zhao is awarded Vilas Distinguished AchievementProfessor.

New and Recent Highlights in Publications:

• He C…. Zhao X, Sirois CL, …Wang D. AI-based Characterization of Alzheimer’s Disease Phenotypes from Population Scale Single Cell Data. Nature Medicine (in press).
• Yu Gao^* , Qiping Dong^* , Kalpana Hanthanan Arachchilage^*,(*, equal contributions), Ryan D Risgaard , Moosa Syed , Jie Sheng , Danielle K Schmidt , Ting Jin , Shuang Liu , Soraya O Sandoval , Sara Knaack , Magnus T Eckholm , Rachel J Chen , Yu Guo , Dan Doherty , Ian Glass , Jon E Levine , Daifeng Wang #, Qiang Chang #, Xinyu Zhao #, Andre M M Sousa # (#, co-correspondence) Multimodal analysis of neuronal maturation in the developing primate prefrontal cortex.Neuron 2025 May 20:S0896-6273(25)00308-3. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.04.025. Online ahead of print. see news release.
• Sandoval SO$*, Cappuccio G*, Kruth K*, Osenberg S^*,  (*equal contribution), Khalil S, Mendez-Albelo NM, Padmanabhan K, Wang D, Niciu MJ, Bhattacharyya A, Stein JL, Sousa AMM, Waxman E, Buttermore ED, Whye D, Sirois CL, Cross-IDDRC Human Stem Cell Consortium, Williams A^#, Maletic-Savatic M^#, Zhao X^,# (#, co-correspondence) “Rigor and reproducibility in human brain organoid research: where we are and where we need to go” Stem Cell Reports (ISSCR society journal) 2024.  It is a collaborative effort across 16 IDDRC centers over the past 4 years. It is considered a major milestone of our Cross-IDDRC Human Stem Cell Consortium.  (see press release)
• Shen M*, Sirois CL*, Guo Y (Kristy)*, Li M*, (*equal contribution), Dong Q, Mendez-Albelo NM$, Gao Y, Khullar S$, Kissel L$, Sandoval SO$, Wolkoff N%, Huang SX%, Xu Z$, Bryan JE%, Contractor A%, Korabelnikov T%, Glass IA, Doherty D, Birth Defects Research Laboratory, Levine JE, Sousa AMM, Chang Q, Bhattacharyya A, Wang D, Werling DM, and Zhao X. Species-specific FMRP regulation of RACK1 is critical for prenatal cortical development. Neuron 2023. see News release. 
• Guo Y (Kristy), Shen M, Dong Q, Mendez-Albelo NM$, Le J%, Li M, Huang SX%, Jarzembowski ED%, Schoeller KA%, Stockton ME%, Sirois CL, Horner VL, Sousa AMM, Gao Y, Birth Defects Research Laboratory, Levine JE, Wang D, Chang Q, Zhao, X. “Elevated levels of FMRP-target MAP1B impair human and mouse neuronal development and mouse social behaviors via autophagy pathway”Nature Communications June 26 2023 (see news release)