Kang Shen

Kang Shen is the Frank Lee and Carol Hall Professor and Professor of Biology and of Pathology at Stanford University and serves as the Vincent V.C. Woo Director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Shen’s lab studies fundamental cell biology questions in the nervous system. These questions include: how neurons establish polarized cytoskeletal networks during development; how polarized intracellular membrane trafficking gives rise to distinct morphology and function of axon and dendrites; and how neurons coordinate intracellular synaptic assembly and extracellular signaling events to form specific synaptic connections at particular subcellular locations. Using the nematode C. elegans as a model, his lab studies cell biology in live neurons in their natural environments.

Shen has received numerous honors including the Searle Scholar Award and the Mcknight Neuroscience Scholar Award. He holds an M.D. from Tongji Medical University in China and a Ph.D. in molecular cellular neuroscience from Duke University.