Research
ABOUT THE LAB:
Animals depend on their temperature sensory systems to avoid noxious thermal extremes and to seek optimal temperatures for survival. Temperature sensation is particularly important for small animals, such as insects, because they rely on the ambient temperatures to set their body temperatures. Many insect vectors of diseases, including mosquitoes, transmit human diseases by responding to the temperature of their warm-blooded hosts and use it to guide their blood-feeding behaviors. Therefore, determining cellular and molecular bases, as well as neural circuits, of insect temperature sensation will offer insight into ways to potentially regulate the spread of vector-borne diseases. Our lab is using fruit flies to study this question.
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CURRENT PROJECTS:
Define how Drosophila melanogaster senses temperature and integrates thermal information with other sensory cues. Our laboratory investigates innocuous thermosensory systems in both larval and adult Drosophila melanogaster. We use fly genetics, molecular biology, behavioral assays, calcium imaging, electrophysiology, connectomics, and network science to dissect how environmental stimuli are detected and integrated by peripheral sensory neurons and neural circuits in the brain to guide behavioral outputs.
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Understand how thermoresponsive molecules detect temperature changes. Drosophila melanogaster employs distinct families of receptor proteins, including gustatory receptors and ionotropic receptors, to detect temperature. Our laboratory studies these thermoresponsive receptors to uncover how they are activated by absolute temperatures and temperature changes at the molecular level.
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Investigate sensory processing in the spotted-wing drosophila. The spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) is an invasive and highly destructive agricultural pest that threatens fruit production worldwide. Our laboratory applies the knowledge and techniques developed in Drosophila melanogasterto understand how spotted-wing drosophila detects environmental cues, including temperature, humidity, and chemical signals. We aim to use this knowledge to develop safe and effective pest control strategies.
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Determine how disease vectors detect host temperature to guide blood-feeding behavior. Kissing bugs are the primary insect vectors of Chagas disease, a major public health concern in Latin America with increasing cases reported in the southern United States. These insects rely heavily on thermal cues to locate hosts. In collaboration with Dr. Chloe Lahondère, my laboratory seeks to identify the thermosensory molecular receptors underlying host detection, with the long-term goal of developing novel vector control strategies.