Prof. Benjamin YEE ADoMHRC & Professor
BSc Hons, DPhil (Oxon), CPsychol

Location QT520
Phone +852 2766 4831
mail benjamin.yee@polyu.edu.hk

Open Platform for University Scholars
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Biography Prof. Benjamin Yee is a behavioural neuroscientist with a special interest in schizophrenia and related mental dysfunctions. His research focuses on the mechanistic understanding of behaviour and higher cognitive functions from molecular to system levels. Translational animal models are used to test and develop new therapeutic concepts in the treatment and management of human neuropsychiatric disorders with an aim to enhance cognitive function and psychological well-being. He looks forward to fostering novel collaborative research links to meet this challenge.
Prof. Yee received his BSc Honours degree in psychology from University College London and his doctoral degree (DPhil) from the University of Oxford, where he investigated the modulation of attentional function by the limbic-striatal circuitry in the rat, at the Department of Experimental Psychology. He subsequently held positions as a postdoctoral scientist at the ETH (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich and the University of Oxford, and as a Research Fellow at the University of Hong Kong. He was then recruited back by ETH Zurich, where he had stayed for over a decade as a Senior Scientist and Group Leader in the Laboratory of Behavioural Neurobiology. Prior to joining the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at PolyU in 2015, he held the position of Director of Behavioural Neuroscience at the Legacy Research Institute in Oregon USA.
Prof. Yee is a Chartered Psychologist registered at the British Psychological Society, and a member of the American Psychological Association, Society of Neuroscience (USA) and the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies. He currently serves as assistant editor on the editorial board of Behavioural Pharmacology – the official journal of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society. He has published extensively in the fields of neuroscience and neuropsychiatry with over 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Yee-bk) and established collaborative links with laboratories in Europe, UK and the USA (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JWE7NfAAAAAJ&hl=en).




Education and Academic Qualifications Doctor of Philosophy, University of Oxford
Bachelor of Science, University of London




Research Interests
Translational models of neuropsychiatric conditions
Neuroplasticity, learning and memory
Psychobiological basis of neurorehabilitation



Research Output

Publications
Hausrat TJ, Muhia M, Gerrow K, Thomas P, Hirdes W, Tsukita S, Heisler FF, Herich L, Dubroqua S, Breiden P, Feldon J, Schwarz JR, Yee BK, Smart TG, Triller A, Kneussel M. (2015) Radixin regulates synaptic GABAA receptor density and is essential for reversal learning and short-term memory. Nature Communications, 6:6872. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7872
Wei CJ, Augusto E, Gomes CA, Singer P, Wang Y, Boison D, Cunha RA, Yee BK, Chen JF. (2014) Regulation of fear responses by striatal and extrastriatal adenosine A2A receptors in forebrain. Biological Psychiatry, 75:855-63
Harvey RJ, Yee BK. (2013) Glycine transporters as novel therapeutic targets in schizophrenia, alcohol dependence and pain. Nature Review Drug Discovery, 12:866-85.
Brayda-Bruno L, Mons N, Yee BK, Micheau J, Abrous DN, Nogues X, Marighetto A. (2013) Partial loss in septo-hippocampal cholinergic neurons alters memory-dependent measures of brain connectivity without overt memory deficits. Neurobiology of Disease, 54:372-81.
Shen HY, Singer P, Lytle N, Wei CJ, Lan JQ, Williams-Karnesky RL, Chen JF, Yee BK, Boison D. (2012) Adenosine augmentation ameliorates psychotic and cognitive endophenotypes of schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 122:2567-77.