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

• July 2026: We have had another successful Lab Annual Data Blitz. Congratulations to the presenters (Christian, Gwen, Arina, Ben, Charlie, Ayesha, Stanley, Leo, Nasteha, and Anna) and their mentors (Yu, Zhiyan, Kristy, Jiyoun, Audrey, Magnus, Yajie, and Anna). We thank Magnus and Anna for organizing this exciting event!
• July: Congratulations to Soraya Sandoval (NTP) and Natasha Méndez-Albelo (MCP) for excellent presentation at 2026 Annual Meeting for International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) in Montreal (Canada). Both of them have receivedUW graduate school travel awards to attend this meeting)! Congratulations to Soraya Sandoval whose abstract has been selected for a prestigious ISSCR Travel AND Merit Award for the ISSCR 2026.
• June: Congratulations to Gwen Roter (UW-Madison junior, mentored by CMB student Zhiyan Xu) for being awarded the 2026 Morris Aprison Undergraduate Research Scholarship.
• June: Congratulations to Carissa Sirois, Zhiyan Xu, and Maya Evans for excellent poster presentations at Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and Gordon Research Seminars (GRS) on Fragile X and Autism. Carissa Sirois was selected to give an oral presentation and Maya Evans was selected as a Discussion Leader for the GRS. Xinyu Zhao was a speaker for the GRC and has been elected to be a co-Vice Chair for 2028 GRC (Italy) and co-Chair for 2030 GRC (US).
• June: Congratulations to Jiyoun Lee (NTP) who has been selected to join the Morse Society Scholars program, which provide 50% stipend coverage for 3 years (9/1/2026-8/31/2029). As a part of this program, Jiyoun will attend cross-disciplinary monthly dinners to enhance her graduate training and career development. 
• May: Congratulations to Jensen Weik and Ruthika Adjit for graduating with BS from UW-Madison. Jensen Weik and her BME team won BME senior design award.
• April 20 2026: Congratulations to Natasha Méndez-Albelo (MCP) for a successful PhD thesis defense!
• April 17: Congratulations to Stanley (Sixing) Chen (mentored by Zhiyan Xu) for being awarded with Undergraduate Sophomore Research Scholarship!
• April 16 2026: Congratulations to Soraya Sandoval (NTP) for a successful PhD thesis defense!
• April 13 2026: Congratulations to SURFiN fellows Gwen Roter, Arina Baranoff, and Nasteha Sahal and their mentors Zhiyan Xu, Yu Gao, and Jiyoun Lee for their excellent research presentation in New Your City!
• April 2026: Congratulations to Jiyoun Lee (NTP) for being awarded a highly competitive predoctoral fellowship from FRAXA.
• Congratulations to Charles Lipscomb for being awarded with Biochemistry Mary Sine Undergraduate Summer Research Award.
• March 2026: Congratulations to Ethan Dayley (research intern, mentored by Carissa Sirois) for being accepted by UW MCP graduate program.
• We are thrilled and extremely grateful to receive a translational/multidisciplinary grant from the Eagles Autism Foundation for “Developing hashtag#CRISPR-based gene correction for treating hashtag#autism”. With this support, my colleague Shaoqin (Sarah) Gong (also at hashtag#UW-Madison) and I will move forward towards this goal! We thank Mr. Jeffery Lurie, hashtag#PhiladelphiaEagles, and hashtag#EaglesAutismFoundation for their vision and generosity! see news: Eagles Autism Foundation contributes $10.8 million to fund 54 research & community projects: https://lnkd.in/gTVkVaxk

New and Recent Highlights in Publications:

• Sirois CL, Lee J, Chambers AL. and Zhao X Mitochondrial dynamics in neurodevelopment and developmental disorders. Nature Review Neuroscience. 2026 Mar 4;. doi: 10.1038/s41583-026-01031-7
• Ren X^%, Sirois CL^%  (^%, equal contribution), Doudlah R, Ethan Dayley,  Mendez-Albelo NM, Hai A*, Rosenberg A*, Zhao X  (*, co-correspondence). A Semi-Automated MEA Spike sorting (SAMS) method for high throughput assessment of cultured neurons. Stem Cell Reports 2026 Apr 14;21(4):102872. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2026.102872.  See news release.
• He C…. Zhao X, Sirois CL, …Wang D. AI-based Characterization of Alzheimer’s Disease Phenotypes from Population Scale Single Cell Data. Nature Medicine 2026 (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)