Staff Scientist

In 1994 I received my PhD degree from Beijing Normal University, P.R.China, advised by Prof. Xu Rumei. My thesis describes the post-landing hostplant-selection behavior of whiteflies, using electrical penetration graph (EPG) as the main approaching method. During and after my PhD, I worked in the Department of Entomology, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands, supervised by Prof. J.C. van Lenteren and Dr. W.F. Tjallingii. While I was studying the feeding behavior of whiteflies, I became interested in insect?s chemical communication in general. In 1996 I came to Hansson lab in Lund University, Sweden as a postdoctoral fellow. In his lab my research was focused on the neural basis of pheromonal communication in male Agrotis segetum, the turnip moth. In short, I used intracellular recording and staining methods to investigate how the projection (output) neurons (PN) in the male antennal lobes (AL), the primary olfactory center that is analogous to the olfactory bulb (OB) in vertebrates, process the female sex pheromones. Using the same technique, I also studied the protocerebral processing of olfactory information in the same species. Continuing along this line of research, I came to Hildebrand lab in Tucson, Arizona in 1999 as a Research Associate. I have mainly worked in a project funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) characterizing the interactions of different neural elements in the AL of male hawk moth, Manduca sexta. One of the major experiments I have conducted is to use dual-intracellular recording and staining methods to study the coherence of PN firing. Furthermore, to expand the scope of my research, I participate the multi-unit team led by Dr. T. A. Christensen. With this newer technique, we study the population response of AL neurons to pheromonal as well as non-pheromonal odors. The goal is to understand how the moth brain can cope with the unlimited environmental odor space and help the animal to make a right behavioral decision. Hopefully the knowledge we gain from a simple moth brain will shed some lights on the functions of higher brains.?

Selected publications
T.A.Christensen, H. Lei and J.G. Hildebrand, 2003. Coordination of central odor representations through transient, non-oscillatory synchronization of glomerular output neurons. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences 100(19): 11076-11081.

H. Lei, T.A. Christensen and J.G. Hildebrand, 2002. Local inhibition modulates odor-evoked synchronization of glomerulus-specific output neurons. Nature Neuroscience 5(6): 557-565.
H. Lei, S. Anton and B.S. Hansson, 2001. Olfactory protocerebral pathways processing sex pheromone and plant odor information in the male moth Agrotis segetum. J. Comp. Neurology 432: 356-370.?

T.A.Christensen, V.M. Pawlowski, H. Lei and J.G. Hildebrand, 2000. Multi-unit recordings reveal context-dependent modulation of synchrony in odor-specific neural ensembles. Nature Neuroscience 3(9): 927-931.

H. Lei and B.S. Hansson, 1999. Central processing of pulsed pheromone signals by antennal lobe neurons in the male moth Agrotis segetum. J. Neurophysiol. 81: 1113-1122.

H. Lei, W.F. Tjallingii and J.C. van Lenteren, 1998. Probing and feeding characteristics of the greenhouse whitefly in association with host-plant acceptance and whitefly strains. Entomol. Exp. Appl. 88: 73-80.
ics of the greenhouse whitefly in association with host-plant acceptance and whitefly strains. Entomol. Exp. Appl. 88: 73-80.