Liming Tan is a Principal Investigator at the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (joined in December 2022). He has long been committed to the study of the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which genetic programs and postnatal experience regulate brain development, plasticity and disease. Using single cell-type RNA sequencing, molecular genetics and sparse neuron labeling and imaging, he discovered a new family of cell recognition proteins that are key regulators for the spatiotemporally specific assembly of visual and motor circuits in Drosophila. By integrating longitudinal 2-photon calcium imaging, visual physiology, single-cell transcriptomics and genetics, he revealed the spatiotemporal rules by which visual experience in early life regulates the development of molecular identity and function of different neuronal subtypes in the mouse primary visual cortex, and demonstrated how experience regulates these processes through cell recognition proteins. He has published in prestigious journals including Cell (2015, 2022), Neuron (2018, 2020, 2025, 2026), Current Biology (2021), and Journal of Neuroscience (2022, 2026) as the first or corresponding author, as well as in Neuron, Cell Reports, and eLife as a co-author. He has received funding support from the NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas), National Key R&D Program of China, and NSFC's general program, and SMART general project. He has been invited to give oral presentations three times at the Cold Spring Harbor Conference in the United States and once at SfN annual conference, and twice in Cold Spring Harbor Asia meeting. His research team at Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced technology has strong expertise for molecular, cellular, circuit, physiological and behavioral studies in the mouse visual system. Through integration of cutting-edge technologies at different scales, including single-cell multi-omics, in vivo 2-photon calcium imaging, in vivo multichannel recording, circuit tracing plus whole brain imaging, behavioral analysis, and molecular genetics, their research sought to shed light on the organizational principle at the level of cell subtypes in the mammalian brain, particulaly in the visual system, and the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying this organization.

How postnatal experience regulate brain development, plasticity, function and disease at molecular and cellular levels

1.Zhou C, Gao X, Tan L*. Shaping Sight: Novel Thalamic Plasticity Channels dLGN Feature Preference During Visual Critical Period. Neuron. 2025. 113(9):1294-1296. 
2.Tan L, Ringach DL, Trachtenberg JT*. The development of receptive field tuning properties in mouse binocular primary visual cortex. Journal of Neuroscience. 2022. 42(17): 3546-3556.
3.Cheng S#, Butrus S#, Tan L#, Xu R, Sagireddy S, Trachtenberg JT, Shekhar K*, Zipursky SL*. Vision-dependent specification of cell types and function in the developing cortex. Cell. 2022. 185(2):311-327. e24.
4.Tan L, Ringach DL, Zipursky SL, Trachtenberg JT*. Vision is required for the formation of binocular neurons prior to the classical critical period. Current Biology. 2021. 31: 4305-4313. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.07.053   
5.Tan L, Tring E, Ringach DL, Zipursky SL, Trachtenberg JT*. Vision changes the cellular    composition of binocular circuitry during the critical period. Neuron. 2020. 108(4):735-747. e6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.09.022 
6.Xu S#, Xiao Q#, Cosmanescu F, Sergeeva AP, Yoo J, Lin Y, Katsamba PS, Ahlsen G, Kaufman J, Linaval N, Lee P-T, Bellen HJ, Shapiro L, Honig B, Tan L*, Zipursky SL*. Interactions between the Ig-Superfamily Proteins DIP-α and Dpr6/10 Regulate Assembly of Neural Circuits. Neuron. 2018. 100(6):1369-1384. e6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.11.001 (*Previewed in the same issue)
7.Cosmanescu F, Katsamba PS, Sergeeva AP, Ahlsen G, Patel SD, Brewer JJ, Tan L, Xu S, Xiao Q, Nagarkar-Jaiswal S, Nern A, Bellen HJ, Zipursky SL*, Honig B*, and Shapiro L*. Neuron Sub-type Specific Expression, Interaction Affinities, and Specificity Determinants of DIP/Dpr Cell Recognition Proteins. Neuron. 2018. 100(6):1385-1400. e6. (*Previewed in the same issue) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.10.046 
8.Tan L#, Zhang KX#, Pecot MY, Nagarkar-Jaiswal S, Lee PT, Takemura SY, McEwen JM, Nern A, Xu S, Tadros W, Chen Z, Zinn K, Bellen HJ, Morey M*, Zipursky SL*. Ig Superfamily Ligand and Receptor Pairs Expressed in Synaptic Partners in Drosophila. Cell. 2015. 163(7):1756-69.

He discovered a new family of cell recognition proteins that are key regulators for the spatiotemporally specific assembly of visual and motor circuits in fruit fly. He revealed the spatiotemporal rules by which visual experience in early life regulates the development of molecular identity and function of different neuronal subtypes in the mouse primary visual cortex, and demonstrated how experience regulates these processes through cell recognition proteins. His research is supported by NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas), National Key R&D Program of China, and NSFC's general program, and SMART general project.