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

• 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 today!
• 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!
  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)