Dr. Zijun Chen is an Associate Research Fellow and Master's Supervisor at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the Institute of Biophysics, CAS, and subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at SIAT.
Her research aims to elucidate how the brain integrates internal metabolic states with reward-related signals to guide motivated behaviors. By combining circuit-level manipulations, in vivo neural activity recording, and behavioral analyses, her work focuses on identifying neural substrates that link feeding, reward processing, and addictive behaviors.

Investigating neural circuit mechanisms that integrate metabolic state and reward processing to regulate feeding and alcohol-related motivated behaviors.

(1) Chen, Z.#, Deng, X.#, Shi, C., Jing, H., Tian, Y., Zhong, J., Chen, G., Xu, Y., Luo, Y., & Zhu, Y. (2024). GLP-1R-positive neurons in the lateral septum mediate the anorectic and weight-lowering effects of liraglutide in mice. The Journal of clinical investigation, 134(17), e178239. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI178239
(2) Chen, Z.#, Chen, G.#, Zhong, J., Jiang, S., Lai, S., Xu, H., Deng, X., Li, F., Lu, S., Zhou, K., Li, C., Liu, Z., Zhang, X., & Zhu, Y. (2022). A circuit from lateral septum neurotensin neurons to tuberal nucleus controls hedonic feeding. Molecular psychiatry, 27(12), 4843–4860. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01742-0
(3) Shang, C.#, Chen, Z.#, Liu, A., Li, Y., Zhang, J., Qu, B., Yan, F., Zhang, Y., Liu, W., Liu, Z., Guo, X., Li, D., Wang, Y., & Cao, P. (2018). Divergent midbrain circuits orchestrate escape and freezing responses to looming stimuli in mice. Nature communications, 9(1), 1232. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03580-7
(4) Xu, Y. L.#, Zhu, L.#, Chen, Z. J.#, Deng, X. F., Liu, P. D., Li, S., Lin, B. C., Yang, C. Z., Xu, W., Zhou, K. K., & Zhu, Y. J. (2022). Release of Endogenous Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor into the Lateral Entorhinal Cortex from the Paraventricular Thalamus Ameliorates Social Memory Deficits in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease. Neuroscience bulletin, 38(11), 1425–1430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-022-00900-2
(5) Chen, G.#, Chen, Z.#, & Zhu, Y. (2022). How the brain processes negative emotions. eLife, 11, e77550. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77550
(6) Keyes, P. C., Adams, E. L., Chen, Z., Bi, L., Nachtrab, G., Wang, V. J., Tessier-Lavigne, M., Zhu, Y., & Chen, X. (2020). Orchestrating Opiate-Associated Memories in Thalamic Circuits. Neuron, 107(6), 1113–1123.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.06.028
(7) Liu, Z., Chen, Z., Shang, C., Yan, F., Shi, Y., Zhang, J., Qu, B., Han, H., Wang, Y., Li, D., Südhof, T. C., & Cao, P. (2017). IGF1-Dependent Synaptic Plasticity of Mitral Cells in Olfactory Memory during Social Learning. Neuron, 95(1), 106–122.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.06.015
(8) Shang, C., Liu, Z., Chen, Z., Shi, Y., Wang, Q., Liu, S., Li, D., & Cao, P. (2015). BRAIN CIRCUITS. A parvalbumin-positive excitatory visual pathway to trigger fear responses in mice. Science (New York, N.Y.), 348(6242), 1472–1477. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa8694

Dr. Chen has published 14 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, with more than 1,500 citations. She has served as Principal Investigator on multiple competitive research grants, including the General Program and Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). She was selected for the CAS Special Research Assistant Program and has received research funding from the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation and the Shenzhen Basic Research Program.