Dr. Yongchang Chang is an associate professor in the Division of Neurobiology at Barrow Neurological Institute. He received his medical degree in 1982 from Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China, and his PhD in Physiology and Biophysics in 1998 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Chang has over two decades of experience studying the structure-function relationship of ligand-gated ion channels. He has published 34 peer-reviewed research papers, 4 review papers, and 4 book chapters. Dr. Chang has a current NIH R01 grant to study dynamic structural basis for the mechanism of activation and antagonism of GABAC receptors (PI) and a current NIH U19 grant to develop nicotinic ligands as new antidepressants (co-project leader). He has also successfully completed NIH-supported research to investigate the role of GABA receptor-mediated excitation in the epilepsy of human hypothalamic hamartoma (co-investigator) and Arizona Biomedical Research Commission-supported research to study GABA receptor structure-function relationship.

Structural dynamics of GABA-receptor function, site-specific fluorescent and photochemical techniques, molecular, biological and computational modeling approaches, New Nicotine Analogs for Depression