Venki Murthy returned this week from his summer "vacation" in balmy Santa Barbara, CA, where he coordinated an eight-week program on the ins and outs of olfaction. Hosted…
Natural environments are rich with sensory stimuli. To make sense of the sensory clutter, animals must segregate objects of interest from ever varying backgrounds. Our visual system is…
David Gire paved his path-to-the-postdoc with collaboration and interdisciplinary inspiration. At Silver Creek High School in San Jose, CA, Gire’s AP Biology/Biotech teacher, Mark Okuda (soon to become…
When we sniff an odor, it is first detected by a set of specific odorant receptors expressed by olfactory receptor neurons in the nose. Olfactory receptor neurons then…
What is the function of a sensory system? One straightforward idea is that it strives to create a complete and accurate internal representation of the external world, which…
You can't miss it in the news these days: neuroscientists are excited about anatomical reconstruction of neural connectivity. In fact, the term "connectomics" is a frequently-edited entry in…
Unlike humans, most animals rely heavily on scents to collect information about their external environment, and in particular assess the friendly or not-so-friendly nature of encounters with other…
Olfaction is a critical sense for many animals, guiding their foraging behavior, mate choice and predator avoidance. Mice use ~1000 odorant receptor types in the main olfactory system…
Prof. Engert (second from left) and Dr. Abeanu (right) with a few students from the course. Dr. Albeanu (left) and Prof. Engert making an adjustment to the microscope.…
A moment’s introspection reveals that our perceptions and actions are strongly affected by our behavioral states. Whether you are sleepy, awake, distracted or vigilant will affect how you…
