Dr. Petrina Yau Pok LAU
Assistant Professor (Non-clinical)

• Visiting Research Fellow at the University College London
• Researcher at the International Brain Lab

• Biological mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders
• Circuit-based neuropathological states transition
• Multi-modal data translation
• Cross-species comparison
• Computation psychiatry

Postdoctoral Fellowship and PhD positions are available. Quantitative and experimental doctoral students and graduates with relevant experience in computational and/or systems neuroscience are encouraged to contact me for relevant positions.

Research assistant positions and internships opportunities are also available.

For further enquiries, please email me: yaupoklau(at)cuhk.edu.hk

We study the biological mechanisms behind heritable psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our goal is to find new ways to understand, classify, manage, and potentially treat these brain disorders.
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These disorders have strong heritable causes but are characterized as pathologies of the mind. Traditional research methods struggle to study the biological mechanisms behind subjective clinical measures. Our research uses neurological profiles such as electrical measurements of brain networks to objectively classify perception and cognitive processes underlying neuropathologies. We combine computational models with observations to analyze pathological dynamics in humans and mice. Our recent work has detailed dendritic signal dynamics during visual perception and prior-dependent decision-making processes and established single-cell resolution circuit pathologies in ASD mouse models across the brain.
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To bridge understanding from genetics, molecular pathways, cellular, metabolic, and immunologic factors with clinical observations using multimodal and cross-species approaches we will combine high-density biological measurements, causal manipulation, and computational modeling in our research approach. Overall we aim to develop clinically oriented neuropsychiatric understanding that would aid the development of diagnostics and treatments.

Our current projects address three key questions:

1. How do single-cell dynamics link biological mechanisms to circuit pathology and symptoms? Can brain-wide circuit pathologies improve understanding of perception and identify new treatments for specific biological targets?
2. How do external factors like gut microbiomes, sleep abnormalities, and environmental stress influence pathological states and circuit dynamics, and how do these interactions evolve with disease progression and symptoms?
3. Can computation modelling and artificial intelligence be applied to distill insights from large scale dense datasets, and improve our understanding of neuropathology, asymptomatic brain disorder detection, and bio-subtyping of neuropsychiatric disorders in the community?

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2023 The Kavli Foundation NWB Hackathon Award.
2015-2020 Medical Research Council Postdoctoral Training Fellowship, MRC, UK.
2019 FENS IBRO Travel Award, FENS, EU.
2019 Guarantors of Brain Travel Award, Guarantors of Brain, UK.
2019 The Carl Storm Diversity Fellowship, Gordon Research Conference.
2019 Medical Research Council Recognition Award for Public engagement, MRC Harwell Institute, UK.
2018 The 41st Japanese Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting Travel Award, JNS, Japan.
2017 Medical Research Council Special Award Scheme Award, MRC Harwell Institute, MRC, UK.
2017 Travel Award for the 19th Annual Genes, Brain and Behavior Meeting of The International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society, Madrid, Spain.
2016 Training Grant for mouse genetics course, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK.
2014 Medical Research Council Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit Travel Award for Inhibitory Control of Brain Plasticity Conference, Poland.
2013 Great Britain-China Educational Trust Scholarship, Great Britain-China Educational Trust, UK.

I am dedicated to cultivating a positive lab culture that values both individual wellbeing and productivity. My aim is for my team to reach their full potential in a safe, fair, equitable, and informed environment.

This handbook sets out the processes that I am committed to create such an environment. It is the outcome of a dedicated international workshop, “SAFE Labs,” held in 2024, which focused on identifying the key barriers to establishing Aware, Fair, and Equitable Labs. The participants in the inaugural workshop developed guidelines that serve as the foundation for this handbook, and we look forward to reviewing and updating it to reflect our ongoing progress in this area.

1. The SAFE Labs Handbook as a tool for improving lab cultureE. Donà, J. M. Gahan, P. Y. P. Lau, J. Jeschke, T. Ott, K. Reinhard, C. Sinigaglia, J. L. Treur, T. Vogl, S. Bugeon, L. Mariotti, L. F. Rossi, and P. Coen.Elife. 2025 Nov 28:14:e108853. doi: 10.7554/eLife.108853.
   PMID: 41312813
2. Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-makingFindling, C., F. Hubert, L. Acerbi, B. Benson, J. Benson, D. Birman, N. Bonacchi, M. Carandini, J. A. Catarino, G. A. Chapuis, A. K. Churchland, Y. Dan, E. E. J. DeWitt, T. A. Engel, M. Fabbri, M. Faulkner, I. R. Fiete, L. Freitas-Silva, B. Gerçek, K. D. Harris, M. Häusser, S. B. Hofer, F. Hu, J. M. Huntenburg, A. Khanal, C. Krasniak, C. Langdon, P. E. Latham, P. Y. P. Lau, Z. Mainen, G. T. Meijer, N. J. Miska, T. D. Mrsic-Flogel, J.-P. Noel, K. Nylund, A. Pan-Vazquez, L. Paninski, J. Pillow, C. Rossant, N. Roth, R. Schaeffer, M. Schartner, Y. Shi, K. Z. Socha, N. A. Steinmetz, K. Svoboda, C. Tessereau, A. E. Urai, M. J. Wells, S. J. West, M. R. Whiteway, O. Winter, I. B. Witten, A. Zador, P. Dayan, and A. Pouget.Nature. 2025 Sep;645(8079):192-200. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09226-1. Epub 2025 Sep 3.
   PMID: 40903597
3. A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviourBenson, B., J. Benson, D. Birman, N. Bonacchi, M. Carandini, J. A. Catarino, G. A. Chapuis, A. K. Churchland, Y. Dan, P. Dayan, E. E. J. DeWitt, T. A. Engel, M. Fabbri, M. Faulkner, I. R. Fiete, C. Findling, L. Freitas-Silva, B. Gerçek, K. D. Harris, M. Häusser, S. B. Hofer, F. Hu, F. Hubert, J. M. Huntenburg, A. Khanal, C. Krasniak, C. Langdon, P. Y. P. Lau, Z. F. Mainen, G. T. Meijer, N. J. Miska, T. D. Mrsic-Flogel, J.-P. Noel, K. Nylund, A. Pan-Vazquez, A. Pouget, C. Rossant, N. Roth, R. Schaeffer, M. Schartner, Y. Shi, K. Z. Socha, N. A. Steinmetz, K. Svoboda, A. E. Urai, M. J. Wells, S. J. West, M. R. Whiteway, O. Winter, and I. B. Witten.Nature. 2025 Sep;645(8079):177-191. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09235-0. Epub 2025 Sep 3.
   PMID: 40903598
4. Reproducibility of in vivo electrophysiological measurements in miceInternational Brain Laboratory, B. Kanga, J. Benson, J. Bhagat, D. Biderman, D. Birman, N. Bonacchi, S. A. Bruijns, K. Buchanan, R. A. A. Campbell, M. Carandini, G. A. Chapuis, A. K. Churchland, M. F. Davatolhagh, H. D. Lee, M. Faulkner, B. Gerçek, F. Hu, J. Huntenburg, C. L. Hurwitz, A. Khanal, C. Krasniak, P. Lau, C. Langfield, N. Mackenzie, G. T. Meijer, N. J. Miska, Z. Mohammadi, J.-P. Noel, L. Paninski, A. Pan-Vazquez, C. Rossant, N. Roth, M. Schartner, K. Z. Socha, N. A. Steinmetz, K. Svoboda, M. Taheri, A. E. Urai, S. Wang, M. Wells, S. J. West, M. R. Whiteway, O. Winter, I. B. Witten, Y. Zhang.Elife. 2025 May 12:13:RP100840. doi: 10.7554/eLife.100840.
   PMID: 40354112
5. Dissecting the Complexities of Learning With Infinite Hidden Markov Models
   S. A. Bruijns, K. Bougrova, I. C. Laranjeira, P. Y. P. Lau, G. T. Meijer, N. J. Miska, J.-P. Noel, A. Pan-Vazquez, N. Roth, K. Z. Socha, A. E. Urai, and P. Dayan.Nat Neurosci. 2026 Jan;29(1):186-194. Nat Neurosci
   PMID: 41469444

Co-Supervisor of:
Mr. HUNG, Tin Shing Jacky