Harris Kaplan

Assistant Professor of Biology

Education

BA, Biology, New York University, 2012
PhD, Neurobiology, IMP Vienna, 2019
Postdoc, Neurobiology, Harvard University, 2020-2026

Research interests

Neuronal circuits underlying infant behaviors, including sleep and social behavior.

How does the brain control behavior in early life? The brain does not “wait” until it is fully mature before it functions; rather, developing neuronal circuits are active, responsive to sensory inputs, and drive behavior, in newborns and even in the womb. The Kaplan Lab combines molecular and neurophysiological approaches to investigate how the infant brain controls behavior, using mice as a model. In particular, we investigate two prominent early life behaviors: (1) sleep and (2) social interactions with parents and siblings. We focus on genetically defined neuron types in subcortical regions such as hypothalamus and brainstem that underlie these behaviors.

A second line of research addresses neuronal cell type heterogeneity. Recent work has shown that the hypothalamus and brainstem contain 1000s of distinct neuronal types, defined by their transcriptomes. The behavioral and physiological functions of the vast majority of these neuron types is unknown. We are developing approaches to target these neuron types in a high-throughput manner and “de-orphan” their functions.

If you are interested in learning more, or joining our research group, please e-mail me! We are growing and actively recruiting students and postdocs.

Representative publications

Kaplan HS, Logeman BL, Zhang K, Yawitz TA, Santiago C, Sohail N, Talay M, Seo C, Naumenko S, Ho Sui SJ, Ginty DD, Ren B, Dulac C (2025). Sensory input, sex, and function shape hypothalamic cell type development. Nature 647, 157–168. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08603-0

Kaplan HS*, Horvath T*, Rahman MM*, Dulac C (2025). The neurobiology of parenting and infant-evoked aggression. Physiological Reviews 2025 Jan 1;105(1):315-381. DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00036.2023. *Equal contribution.

Sullivan ZA, Wong BJ, Kapoor V, Vincze PK, Kaplan HS, Giraudet P, Watson BR, Misherghi A, Lourido S, Moffitt JR, Dulac C (2025). Brain-immune interactions generate pathogen-specific sickness states. bioRxiv 12.06.692770; DOI: https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.06.692770.

Kaplan HS*, Salazar Thula O*, Khoss N, Zimmer M (2020). Nested neuronal dynamics orchestrate a behavioral hierarchy across timescales. Neuron 5 February 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.10.037. *Equal contribution.

Kaplan HS, Zimmer M (2020). Brain-wide representations of ongoing behavior: a universal principle? Current Opinion in Neurobiology 64, 60-69. DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2020.02.008.

Full publication list can be found at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=harris+s+kaplan