Dr. Yeh graduated from DePauw University in 1976, received his PhD in cell biology with a concentration in neuroscience from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1981, and trained at the National Institutes of Health as a staff fellow until 1984. He has served on the faculty at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and the University of Connecticut Health Center. He is currently the William W. Brown Professor and chair of the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Yeh has taught actively in the medical school and graduate school curricula, and has had leadership roles in directing graduate education and training at the institutional and national levels.
Dr. Yeh's research targets the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter receptor interactions and their plasticity in the adult and developing CNS. Ongoing research projects employ behavioral, neuroanatomical, patch clamp electrophysiological and molecular biological techniques to investigate in a variety of transgenic mouse models: (1) neurotrophins and the development of inhibitory and excitatory synaptic transmission; (2) neurotransmitters as developmental signals in the migration, specification, and functional maturation of neurons; and (3) cellular and molecular mechanisms in the septum and hippocampus related to learning and memory in aging, Alzheimer's disease, and alcohol consumption. Dr. Yeh encourages his graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to elaborate on these research themes and cross-fertilize them with their own interests.