Harris Kaplan

Primary Appointment

Assistant Professor, Biology

Education

• BA, Biology, New York University
• PhD, Neurobiology, IMP Vienna, Austria
• Postdoc, Neurobiology, Harvard University

Contact Information

Gilmer Hall
485 McCormick Road
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904
Email: mvr2qk@virginia.edu

Research Disciplines

Bioinformatics and Genomics, Cell and Developmental Biology, Molecular Biology, Neuroendocrinology, Neuroscience, Physiology

Research Interests

Neuronal circuits underlying infant behaviors, including sleep and social behavior

Research Description

How do immature neuronal circuits control behavior in early life? Young animals, such as infants, do not develop passively until their brains are mature. 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 focus on two prominent early life behaviors: (1) social interactions with parents and littermates; and (2) sleep. We focus on genetically defined neuron types in subcortical regions such as hypothalamus and brainstem that underlie these behaviors.

A second line of research focuses on 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 “de-orphan” these neuron types.

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

Selected Publications

2025

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.

Logeman BL, Horvath PM, Talay M, Kapoor K, Kaplan HS, Dulac C (2025). Cell Type-Specific Hormonal Signaling Configures Hypothalamic Circuits for Parenting. bioRxiv12.11.693766; DOI: https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.11.693766

Nowakowski TJ, Nano PR, Matho KS, Chen X, Corrigan EK, Ding W, Gao Y, Heffel M, Jayakumar J, Kaplan HS, Kronman FN, Kovner R, Mannens CCA, Song M, Steyert MR, Venkatesan S, Wallace JL, Wang L, Werner JM, Zhang D, Yuan G, Zuo G, Ament SA, Colantuoni C, Dulac C, Fan R, Gillis J, Kriegstein AR, Krienen FM, Kim Y, Linnarsson S, Mitra PP, Pollen AA, Sestan N, Tward DJ, van Velthoven CTJ, Yao Z, Bhaduri A, Zeng H (2025). The new frontier in understanding human and mammalian brain development. Nature 647, 51–59 (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09652-1

2024

Nimpf S, Kaplan HS, Nordmann GC, Cushion T, Keays DA (2024). Long-term, high-resolution in vivo calcium imaging in pigeons. Cell Reports Methods 2024 Feb 13:100711. DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2024.100711 

2020

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.

2018

Kaplan HS, Nichols ALA, Zimmer M (2018). Opinion piece. Sensorimotor integration in Caenorhabditis elegans: a reappraisal towards dynamic and distributed computations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2018 Sep 10; 373 (1758). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0371

Kaplan HS, Zimmer M (2018). Preview article. Sensorimotor integration for decision making: how the worm steers. Neuron 97(2), 258-260. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2017.12.042

2016

Hums I, Riedl J, Mende F, Kato S, Kaplan HS, Latham R, Sonntag M, Traunmüller T, Zimmer M (2016). Regulation of two motor patterns enables the gradual adjustment of locomotion strategy in Caenorhabditis elegans. eLife 2016;5:e14116. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.14116

2015

Kato S*, Kaplan HS*, Schrödel T*, Skora S, Lindsay TH, Yemini E, Lockery S, Zimmer M (2015). Global brain dynamics embed the motor command sequence of Caenorhabditis elegans. Cell, 163(3), 656–669. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.09.034. *Equal contribution.

2014

Collins B, Kaplan HS, Cavey M, Lelito KR, Bahle AH, Zhu Z, Macara AM, Roman G, Shafer OT, Blau J (2014). Differentially timed extracellular signals synchronize pacemaker neuron clocks. PLoS Biology, 12(9): e1001959. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001959