My research has encompassed many aspects of sensory signaling, primarily for the sense of taste, and also for olfaction, somatic sensation and vision. I am interested in how receptor cells detect their sensory stimuli through membrane receptors, how they recruit diverse transduction cascades intracellularly, and how they transmit information to the brain. My current projects also examine the molecular diversity of sensory neurons, and how neuronal cell types may serve to delineate neural circuits, which in turn underlie perception, metabolic, and reflex functions.
My research, continuously supported by grants from the NIH for over 3 decades, integrates insights at the cellular, tissue and whole animal level, principally in the mouse model. Using single-cell RNAseq, we examine the breadth of genes expressed in individual neurons, and use these large datasets to classify neurons. We employ confocal Calcium imaging of neurons using Calcium reporter proteins expressed transgenically or virally. These allow us to visualize the activation of particular neurons by known stimulus types and infer patterns of sensory coding as they relate to molecularly defined neuronal types. We examine the circuits in which such neurons participate to discern potential systemic outcomes. And we employ behavioral assays to test hypotheses based on molecular, anatomical and functional assays of cellular function.
Through these experiments, we hope to advance understanding of numerous sensory processes in people, how these affect every aspect of their physiology, ability to communicate, and eventually, quality of life.
