Wenbin Yang - Curriculum Vitae
Wenbin Yang
Postdoctoral Fellow | University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
Email: wenbin.yang@ucalgary.ca | Web: young24.github.io
ORCID: 0000-0003-3100-5202
Education
| Ph.D. in Neurobiology | University of Basel, Switzerland | 08/2019 – 08/2024 |
| M.S. in Biophysics | University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, China | Awarded 04/2019 |
| B.S. in Applied Physics | University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, China | Awarded 07/2016 |
Research Experience
Phillips Lab, University of Calgary | 10/2024 – present
Advisor: Aaron Phillips (Associate Professor)
Project: Neurovascular coupling in spinal cord injury: a therapeutic target for early recovery
- Two-photon imaging of blood flow and neural activities in the spinal cord
Felsenberg Lab, Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI), Basel | 08/2019 – 08/2024
Advisor: Johannes Felsenberg (Group Leader)
PhD Project: Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila (First Author)
- Discovered distinct dopamine circuits for true and false memories
- Designed and optimized behavioral experiments
- Architected analysis pipelines for behavioral and imaging data in Python
Wen Lab, USTC | 09/2012 – 04/2019
Advisor: Quan Wen (Professor)
Project I: Visual contrast modulates operant learning responses in larval zebrafish (First Author)
- Demonstrated that increasing visual contrast of conditioned stimuli enhances learning efficiency
- Designed a novel operant learning paradigm and independently built the behavioral setup
- Developed hardware control software BLITZ (C++) and analysis software ABLITZER (MATLAB)
- Mentored three undergraduate students
Project II: Rapid whole brain imaging of neural activity in freely behaving larval zebrafish (Contributor)
- Extracted behavioral features from raw videos using custom MATLAB image processing
- Tested robustness of the tracking system
Project III: Modeling distraction in human decision-making (Main Contributor, with Zhou Lab)
- Designed behavioral experiments for human subjects
- Automated experimental procedures with MATLAB
- Analyzed human responses with statistical models and time series analysis
Engert Lab, Harvard University
Advisor: Florian Engert (Professor)
- Conducted behavioral neuroscience experiments on larval zebrafish hunger behavior
- Performed correlation analysis on behavioral data with custom MATLAB code
Laurent Lab, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
Advisor: Gilles Laurent, Mark Shein-Idelson
Bachelor Thesis: Predicting local field potentials in turtle cortex: a morphology-based model
- Developed a predictive model in Python for local field potentials in three-layer cortex
- Designed parallel computing pipeline for efficiency
- Reproduced and validated experimental results
Publications
Yang, W., et al. (2026). Scalable digital assessment of hypotension symptom burden anchored to blood pressure responses in spinal cord injury. Nature npj Digital Medicine (In Revision).
Yang, W., Pavao-Delgado, M., Warnecke, C., Coban, B., Zattera, B., Felsenberg, J. (2026). Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila. Nature Neuroscience (Accepted).
Yang, W., Meng, Y., Li, D., & Wen, Q. (2019). Visual contrast modulates operant learning responses in larval zebrafish. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 4.
Cong, L., Wang, Z., Chai, Y., Hang, W., Shang, C., Yang, W., … & Wen, Q. (2017). Rapid whole brain imaging of neural activity in freely behaving larval zebrafish (Danio rerio). eLife, 6, e28158.
Awards & Fellowships
Eyes High Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Calgary 01/2024 Cyrus Tang Scholarship, USTC 09/2012 – 09/2016
Conference Presentations
Speaker, Mushroom Body Meeting, Gottingen, Germany 06/2023 Speaker, German Neuroscience Society Conference, Gottingen, Germany 03/2023 Speaker, FMI Annual Meeting, Grindelwald, Switzerland 09/2022 Poster, 5th Imaging Structure and Function in the Zebrafish Brain Conference, Brighton, UK 12/2018 Poster, Advances in Optical Imaging of Living Cells & Organisms, Cold Spring Harbor Asia, Suzhou, China 10/2018
Professional Development
Neurotechnology NIN Summer School, Amsterdam, Netherlands 06/2022 Experimental Neuroscience Cajal Bootcamp 10/2021
Technical Skills
Imaging: Two-photon microscopy, extended light field microscopy (XLFM), calcium imaging
Programming: Python, MATLAB, C++
Analysis: Computational modeling, statistical analysis, image processing, machine learning
Tools: Git/GitHub, LaTeX, behavioral experiment design
References
Aaron Phillips | Postdoc Advisor, Associate Professor, University of Calgary
aaron.phillips@ucalgary.ca
Johannes Felsenberg | PhD Advisor, Group Leader, FMI Basel
johannes.felsenberg@fmi.ch
Florian Engert | Professor, Harvard University
florian@mcb.harvard.edu
Quan Wen | Master Advisor, Professor, USTC
qwen@ustc.edu.cn
| Gilles Laurent | Bachelor Thesis Advisor, Professor, MPI for Brain Research |