The somatosensory system is an animal’s interface with the environment, providing information about touch, temperature, and potential danger (nociception). Environmental information guides behavior and also influences physiological processes, such as thermoregulation, metabolism, and immune responses. Therefore, sensory information is transmitted not only to neural circuits but also reaches other tissue types. Somatosensory processing can go awry through pathological states (eg. chronic pain) or through exploitation by other oganisms (eg. predator/prey interactions). While there have been major advances in the identification of the cells and molecules involved in somatosensory processing, gaps remain in our understanding of how information is received and transmitted, and in particular how these mechanisms can be manipulated.

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The foundation of my research program is that variations of sensory systems in nature can help us understand the molecular underpinnings of sensory neurobiology. Depending on its evolutionary niche, every animal has particular signals that it needs to be sensitive to, while other signals may need to be tolerated. Studying the ways in which evolution has fine-tuned sensory processes reveals the major players and how they can be manipulated to alter sensitivity.

In my ongoing and future work, I focus on two research areas:

(1) the molecular mechanisms of sensing inputs, particularly of noxious toxins from insect venoms,

(2) the molecular mechanisms of signaling from nociceptors to immune cells.

I have gained expertise in the use of Drosophila as a genetically tractable and ethologically relevant model system through my postdoctoral work with Dan Tracey at Indiana University, Bloomington. Fly larvae are an excellent model for nociception and exhibit a clear link between nociception and immune responses, making it possible to dissect these processes at a molecular level. I will combine my training in cellular and molecular neuroscience, neurophysiology, animal behavior, and genetics to answer fundamental questions about the molecular mechanisms of sensing and signaling in somatosensory neurons.