Wei-Chung Lee, PhD – Faculty Profile
Associate Professor of Neurobiology in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital.
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Contact
Email: wei-chung_lee@hms.harvard.edu
Lee Lab website: www.lee.hms.harvard.edu
The Aim
The Lee Lab maps the brain wiring that supports learning, movement, and decision-making.
The Impact
Combining detailed maps of neural connections with observations of how these circuits function during different behaviors allows the lab to understand how the brain processes information. Using advanced imaging, recording, and genetic techniques, the lab links “wiring diagrams” of the brain to real-life activity.
This work provides crucial insight into what happens when activity in these circuits is interrupted or increased. For example, such changes are observed in the brains of individuals with autism and Parkinson’s disease. Knowing how each neuron in a circuit affects another may help lead to treatments that restore brain function, one connection at a time.
A Closer Look
HMS News — January 2023: A New Field of Neuroscience Aims to Map Connections in the Brain
Wei-Chung Lee spoke with HMS News about the subfield of neuroscience called “connectomics.” He describes the tools he and his collaborators use to map the brain and explains why it is important to understand how each part of a neural circuit connects to another. The article describes how connectomics combines detailed maps of neuronal connections with information about neural activity and behavior.
Harvard Medical School — June 2026: Researchers Publish First Complete Connectome of Fruit Fly Brain and ‘Spinal Cord’
The article describes a complete wiring map of the connections between neurons in an adult fruit fly’s brain and nerve cord, which contains about 160,000 neurons. The research found that many behaviors, such as moving a leg, are controlled by local circuits in the relevant body parts rather than by a single central controller in the brain. The graphic includes a colorful visualization of the fruit fly connectome, with the brain and nerve cord shown against a black background.