Laboratory of Chemosensation and Behavior
We use chemical navigation as a dynamic framework to investigate how individual cells, populations of cells, and animals make flexible decisions in changing environments.
We combine experiments, theory, and quantitative modeling to uncover the principles that allow organisms to navigate complex chemical landscapes. We study two complementary systems: bacteria, which we view as multicellular organisms, and the fruit fly Drosophila. Despite their differences, both face the same challenge of extracting information from noisy sensory signals to generate adaptive behavior.
In bacteria, we investigate how sensory strategies vary across species with diverse swimming behaviors, how non-genetic individuality arises, and how a single genome generates collective behaviors that remain adaptive as environments change. In insects, we study how the fly brain extracts navigational information from odor signals and combines this information with other sensory cues and memory to guide goal-directed navigation.
Our lab is highly interdisciplinary. Microbiologists and neurobiologists work alongside physicists, engineers, and theorists, and students have the opportunity to develop both experimental and computational expertise.
Why Chemical Navigation?
Chemical navigation is not just about following chemical gradients—it involves complex computations in three main areas:
- Extracting information from signals: Detecting and processing signals to extract relevant information and combine information from various cues.
- Decision Making: Choosing optimal paths based on environmental inputs, while taking into account how behavioral decisions actively change the signals that will be experienced next.
- Biological Computation: How these processes are executed at the molecular, cellular, and population levels, and how biological diversity and collective behavior lead to emergent adaptive function.
This quantitative perspective reveals the fundamental strategies that organisms use to adapt to diverse environments.
From Bacteria to Fruit Flies
We investigate the well-characterized systems in bacterial chemotaxis and fly olfaction. By bridging microbiology and neuroscience, our dual-system approach:
- Identifies universal principles of biological computation.
- Sparks creativity and fresh ideas through interdisciplinary research.
Join Us
Our lab offers a unique environment where interdisciplinary research meets pioneering exploration. If you’re passionate about decoding the secrets of nature through innovative computational and experimental methods, we welcome your curiosity and expertise to our team.
- For more on bacterial chemotaxis, see our Microbiology papers.
- For more on fruit fly olfactory navigation, see our Neuroscience papers.
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