Juanzi’s birthday celebration at Switzer Plaza. Happy birthday, Juanzi! 🎂
August 25, 2026
Lab awarded a BRAIN Initiative U01 grant from NINDS to develop viral tools for targeting primate retinal cell types, with the goal of advancing both basic visual neurobiology and translational therapeutic strategies for retinal degeneration. A huge thank you to the BRAIN Initiative and NINDS for their support of our research!
July 1, 2026
Diana Ibrahim is selected as a fellow for the T32 Cell and Molecular Biology Training Program. Congratulations to Diana, and thank you for the support from the NIH!
June 29, 2026
Diana Ibrahim joined the lab as a graduate student, welcome!
June 12, 2026
Farewell lunch for Martina and Nathan!
March 20, 2026
Pizza party at Switzer plaza!
March 16, 2026
Xiaoqiang Lang joined the lab as a postdoc fellow, welcome!
February 13, 2026
Lunch at noodle street with our winter rotation students, Diana and Zach!
January 1, 2026
Menglin Li was selected to receive the Collaboratory Fellowship Award from the Institute for Quantitative & Computational Biosciences at UCLA. Congratulations to Menglin, and thank you QCbio!
December 4, 2025
Menglin Li was selected to receive the Gene Synthesis grant. Congratulations to Menglin, and thank you GENEWIZ!
November 23, 2025
Goodbye party for Kheim and hike at the Hollywood trail
October 31, 2025
Halloween 🎃
October 03, 2025
Welcome lunch for the new students! 🐙
September 24, 2025
Martina demonstrated PIP-Seq to NSIDP students during the Genetics & Molecular Biology Bootcamp.
August 2025
Yirong had a great time teaching the Visual Neuroscience Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory.
(From left to right: Ruth Sims, Cory Knox, Yirong Peng)
Photo credit: Michael Do.
August 18, 2025
Martina presented her poster at the Center for Neural Circuit Mapping (CNCM) Conference at UC Irvine! 🐜
May 13, 2025
Menglin presented her poster at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) Annual Meeting in New Orleans! 🐈⬛
May 6, 2025
Khiem presented his poster at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City! 🐮
Apr 03, 2025
Happy birthday, Yi-Rong!
Mar 24, 2025
Happy birthday, Martina! 🥭
Mar 21, 2025
Martina Cavallini is selected as the predoctoral fellow for the T32 Vision Science Training Program. Congratulations to Martina, and thank you for the support from NEI! 👁️👃👁️
Mar 06, 2025
Happy birthday, Junqiang! 🎂
Feb 21, 2025
Farewell lunch for Anthony 🦆
Nov 26, 2024
Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃
Oct 31, 2024
Happy Halloween! 🎃
Jul 02, 2024
The lab was awarded a competitive Seed Grant from the Brain Research Foundation.
Thank you for the support!
Jul 01, 2024
The lab was awarded the first R01 from the National Eye Institute.
Thank you for the support!
Jun 07, 2024
Lin received the Excellence in Research Award from the UCLA Department of Ophthalmology.
Congratulations Lin!
Apr 03, 2024
It’s Yi-Rong’s birthday! 🎂
Mar 06, 2024
Our lab celebrated Junqiang’s birthday at the Northern Cafe Chinese Hot Pot!
Mar 04, 2024
Yi-Rong gave her presentation titled “Molecular Characterization of Retinal Cell Types: Insights into Evolutionary Origins and Regional Specializations” on the World Wide Neuro | Sussex Vision Series.
Jan 28, 2024
Our lab went on a (quite challenging) hike at the Temescal Canyon Trail!
Jan 19, 2024
Junqiang presented at the Stein Eye Institute’s Distinguished Lecture & Basic Sciences Seminar Series!
Jan 10, 2024
Graduate student Victoria Turnbill joined the lab for the winter rotation, welcome!
Dec 15, 2023
Yi-Rong and Menglin joined the Winter Wonderland holiday party with the Department of Ophthalmology!
Nov 20, 2023
Menglin Li joined the lab as a postdoc fellow, welcome!
Nov 17, 2023
Our lab had a pre-Thanksgiving lunch at the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center!
Nov 11, 2023
Junqiang presented at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.!
Oct 20, 2023
Lin presented at the UCLA Department of Ophthalmology’s 27th Annual Vision Science Retreat!
Jun 16, 2023
Sophia Ibargüen left the lab for her post-baccalaureate fellow at the National Eye Institute. Good luck, Sophia!
Apr 17, 2023
Anthony Tran joined the lab as a lab assistant, welcome!
Oct 16, 2022
Our lab went on a hike at the Los Leones Trail!
Sep 22, 2022
Medical student Martina Cavallini joined the lab as a graduate student, welcome!
Mar 28, 2022
Khiem Ha joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher, welcome!
Sep 13, 2021
Sophia Ibargüen joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher, welcome!
Jul 01, 2021
Yi-Rong was selected as a Klingenstein-Simons fellow.
Thank you, Klingenstein Fund and the Simons Foundation, for supporting our research!
Jun 02, 2021
Medical student Martina Cavallini joined the lab for the summer rotation, welcome!
May 10, 2021
Cuiling He joined the lab as a lab assistant, welcome!
May 01, 2021
Sophie Skarlatou joined the lab as a postdoc fellow, welcome!
Apr 20, 2021
Yi-Rong was awarded Knights Templar Eye Foundation Career Starter Grant.
Thank you, Knights Templar Eye Foundation!
Jan 30, 2021
Tongzhou Xu left the lab for his postdoc position at UBC. Good Luck, Tongzhou!
Nov 25, 2020
Yi-Rong was awarded 2020 ARVO Foundation/Genentech Age-related Macular Degeneration Research Fellowship.
Thank you, ARVO Foundation!
Nov 04, 2020
Ruchen Cai joined the lab as a lab assistant, welcome!
Oct 01, 2020
Tongzhou Xu joined the lab as a visiting postdoc scholar, welcome!
Oct01, 2020
Lin Zhang joined the lab as a postdoc follow, welcome!
Jul 01, 2020
Peng Lab was awarded Broad Stem Cell Research Center (BSCRC) Research Award.
Jan 23, 2020
Yi-Rong was invited to present at the “Plant Single-cell Solutions for Energy and the Environment Workshop,” UC Berkeley.
Peng Laboratory at UCLA 