Dr. Heng Du is an Assistant Professor in the Biological Sciences department. His research focuses on the mitochondrial role in neurodegenerative diseases. There are two themes to this focus: 1)explores the synaptic mitochondria-associated mechanisms of neurodegeneration in neurological diseases. 2)is translational study on mitochondrial medicine to protect neurodegeneration under pathological states, by using a combination of molecular biology, cell biology, electrophysiology and pathology on research models including gene-modified animal, cell models and embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells.