Jing He
Jing He, PhD, is dedicated to understanding the molecular and circuit mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Parkinson’s disease (PD), and developing genetic tools for targeted therapies. Dr. He’s expertise spans molecular neuroscience, systems neuroscience and genetics, enabling him to tackle these diseases from integrated approaches.
Among his research goals are to characterize cell types and their connections within basal ganglia circuitry and to uncover cell type- or circuit-specific molecular changes associated with PD. Dr. He uses single cell multiomics approaches, including transcriptomics, epigenomics and spatiomics, to systematically examine these changes in nonhuman primate (NHP) models and human tissues from patients who are living with PD.
To achieve cell type- or circuit-specific therapies such as gene therapy and chemogenetics, Dr. He screens for genetic elements-enhancers that can precisely target these cells and circuits using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived organoids and NHP models.
Dr. He is also interested in understanding how aging influences the progression of PD. He is also developing a novel, ventral tier dopamine neuron-specific ablation PD model in NHPs.
Dr. He has published in several esteemed journals, including Neuron, PNAS, Current Biology and eLife. He was born in mainland China, received his PhD from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and completed his postdoc training at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. He became a faculty member in the Department of Neurology and the Emory Primate Center in October 2024.