Qi Wan
Associate Professor, Department of Physiology & Cell Biology
University of Nevada, USA
Dr. Qi Wan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology & Cell Biology at University of Nevada School of Medicine. Before he joined to the University of Nevada in 2008, Dr. Wan was a Senior Scientist in the Toronto Western Research Institute at University of Toronto. Dr. Wan is well known for his research in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the roles of glutamate and GABAA receptors in synaptic plasticity and neuronal injury.
Dr. Qi Wan research intersts includes the excitatory glutamate receptors and the inhibitory GABAA receptors are ligand-gated ion channels that play essential roles in the central nervous system. My research is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the modulations of glutamate and GABAA receptors by intracellular signals in both physiological and pathophysiological conditions. My study aims at determining how these mechanisms mediate the regulation of synaptic plasticity under physiological conditions and why dysfunctional regulations of these receptors contribute to neuronal death and/or neurodegeneration in pathological conditions, and thus providing molecular basis for the development of neuroprotective strategies for the treatment of patients suffering from stroke, traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases. To realize these goals, we have been employing multiple approaches (i.e. electrophysiology, molecular biology and protein biochemistry) and various preparations (i.e. cell lines, primary neuronal cultures, brain slice and in vivo brain tissues) to test our hypotheses.
