In July 2013, the institute of neuroscience invited professors at the University of California for cooperation talks and seminars. They are Yimin Zou, deputy director of the neural biology, Darwin Berg, director of the neural biology, and Nicholas C, Spitzer of the national academy of sciences academician.

   The three professors have brought several academic lectures, which benefited teachers and students a lot. We also found the research directions for collaboration.

   The research team of UCSD majors in the molecular mechanism of Wnt mediated planar cell polarity signaling pathways in the process of neuron axon growth. Combining the research background in synaptic vesicle transport and microglia migration of Shumin Duan’s research team, they both reached good cooperation intentions. The two teams are about to work together to explore the function and underlying molecular mechanisms of planar cell polarity signaling pathways during synapse development and microglia migration in brain.

The cooperative study includes the following several aspects: 1) to detect the distribution of planar cell polarity pathway in presynaptic membrane and postsynaptic membrane; 2) to compare the differences in the distribution of Planar cell polarity pathway on different types of synapses (such as GABAergic and glutamatergic synapses); 3)to detect the abnormality in synapse development, structure and receptor distribution in planar cell polar molecular knockout mice; 4)to analyze the existence of a planar cell polarity pathway in microglia, and do further exploration on the function and molecular mechanism of the pathway in mediating microglia migration and devouring pathogens . During the process of cooperation, professor Zou will support us with the corresponding reagent and technology.

   Currently, research is just in its infancy. In the next 2-3 years, the two sides plan to apply for state funds, collect the experimental data, train graduate students, and publish papers with high quality in academic journals jointly. They try to provide new theoretical basis and molecular mechanisms for synaptic growth and microglia polarity formation.