CIMR-Scott B Hansen

Research Group

Scott B Hansen

shansen(at)cimrbj.ac.cn

Associate Investigator

Anesthesia, Mechanosesnation, Neuroscience, Cholesterol

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shansen(at)cimrbj.ac.cn

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B.S. in Chemistry, Utah State University, USA

M.S. in Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, USA

Ph.D. in Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, USA

Work Experience

2024-Present

Associate Investigator, Chinese Institute for Medical Physiology, Chinese Institutes for Medical Research, Beijing, China

2024-Present

Professor, Capital Medical University, China

2018-2022

Associate Professor, Molecular Medicine and Neuroscience, Scripps Research, USA

2012-2018

Assistant Professor, Molecular Medicine and Neuroscience, Scripps Research, USA

2012

Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, USA (Advisor: Loren Walensky)

2005-2012

Postdoctoral Fellow, The Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), USA (Advisor: Rod MacKinnon)

Honors and Awards

2018

Accelerating Innovation in Military Medicine, USA (AIMM) 2018 Award

2017

Eicosanoid Research Foundation 2017 Young Investigator Award

2013

NIH Director's New Innovator Award, USA

2007-2011

Postdoctoral Fellow Howard Hughes Medical Institute

2006

Martin D. Kamen Award, Best Doctoral Thesis, UCSD

2006

American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) 2006 Young Scientist Travel Award

2003.7-2005

Tobacco Related Disease Research Program Dissertation Fellow

1996-1999

Academic Merit Scholarship, Utah State University (3 years)

Research Interests

The Hansen lab studies the molecular basis for cell excitability and its role in pain and Alzheimer's Disease. The Hansen lab has found lipids, in particular saturated fats and cholesterol, set the threshold for excitability. Hyper-excitability (over activation) of cells gives rise to unwanted pain, anxiety, and neurodegeneration.

Treatments for these diseases are shockingly limited, and their limits have been exasperated by a lack of molecular understanding. Solving this problem is a major scientific endeavor.

Major Contributions

1. Established membrane mediated mechanisms for anesthesia and mechanosesnation (PNAS, 2020; Nature Comm, 2016; eLife, 2024).

2. Established brain (astrocytic) cholesterol as a regulator of amyloid plaques and neuroinflammation associated with Alzheimer's disease (PNAS, 2021).

3. Established agonists induce displacement of GABAAR from ordered lipids. This showed for the first time the role of lipid compartmentalization in ion channel activation by an endogenous neurotransmitter (Communications Biology, 2025).

Representative Publications *：Co-first author; #：Co-corresponding author

Petersen EN, Pavel MA, Hansen SS, Gudheti M, Ferris HA, Murphy KR, Ja WW, Jorgensen EM, Hansen SB. Mechanical activation of TWIK-related potassium channel by nanoscopic movement and rapid second messenger signaling. eLife, 2024, 12: RP89465. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.89465

Hansen SB, Wang H. The shared role of cholesterol in neuronal and peripheral inflammation. Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2023, 249: 108486. DOI: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2023.108486

Wang H, Yuan Z, Pavel MA, Jablonski SM, Jablonski J, Hobson R, Valente S, Reddy CB, Hansen SB. The role of high cholesterol in SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2023, 299: 104763. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2023.104763

Wang H, Kulas J, Wang C., Holtzman DA, Ferris HA, Hansen SB. Regulation of beta-amyloid production in neurons by astrocyte-derived cholesterol. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021, 118: e2102191118. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2102191118

Pavel MA, Petersen EN, Lerner RA, Hansen SB. Studies on the mechanism of membrane mediated anesthesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020, 117: 13757–13766. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2004259117

Petersen EN, Chung HW, Nayebosadri A, Hansen SB. Kinetic disruption of lipid rafts is a mechanosensor for phospholipase D. Nature Communications, 2016, 7: 13873. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13873

Hansen SB, Tao X, MacKinnon R. Structural basis of PIP2 activation of the classical inward rectifier K+ channel Kir2.2. Nature, 2011, 477: 495-498. DOI: 10.1038/nature10370