Xiaojing Gao
Biology
Bio-X SIGF Fellow 2012/2013
Profs. Liqun Luo (Biology) and Thomas Clandinin (Neurobiology)

We intuitively sense pleasant or noxious smells, and olfactory attraction or aversion is observed in many organisms. Insect and vertebrate olfactory circuits exhibit striking similarities, suggesting a common principle of signal processing, but little is known about how this circuit assigns a binary valence to each odorant that it encounters. To address this question, Xiaojing is combining genetic engineering and developmental neurobiology with quantitative analysis of behavior. He is identifying and characterizing the neural circuits for innate olfactory behavior in fruit flies and testing how their function relies on genes. His work may advance our general knowledge regarding how sensation leads to action and help pest control.