One of the most basic needs that all organisms must meet is the need for food. Everyone knows what it is like to feel hungry, but have you ever wondered what really causes that feeling? Where does the feeling originate? Hunger is an adaptive response generated by the brain that motivates animals to respond behaviorally to dwindling energy stores. The brain integrates cues from our internal and external environments and addresses the problem by generating an appropriate behavioral program—the search for and ingestion of food.
In general, our lab is interested in the mechanisms by which the brain controls innate behaviors, especially feeding behaviors. Fundamentally, all organisms must match their nutritional needs with their dietary food intake. Homeostatic mechanisms monitor the body’s nutrient stores and then relay that information to the brain’s feeding centers. These control centers, in turn, affect appetite and modulate feeding-related behaviors to address nutrient shortages.
Although neuroscience seeks a comprehensive understanding of the inner-workings of the human brain, from our current vantage point, the human brain is an almost impossibly complex system. Instead, we use the genetically tractable Drosophila model system to investigate both the mechanisms that monitor and determine the metabolic set point and the neural pathways that integrate and effect appropriate feeding behaviors.
Drosophila melanogaster have proven their worth time and time again as a useful model of human biology, but fruit flies are an even better model of the biology of other insect species. It is the feeding behaviors of insects that damage our crops and infect us with deadly parasites like the one that causes malaria. This is why a deeper understanding of the neural circuits that control appetite in insects could lead to a dramatic reduction in the $300 billion of agricultural output that is destroyed by insects every year. It could also prevent the hospitalization or death of the millions of people who suffer from insect-born infectious diseases.
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