Two professors to join the School of Science faculty this spring

Steven Flavell examines how the brain sustains or switches between behavioral states at the molecular and circuit levels. Using C. elegans as a model, he probes neuromodulators that coordinate activity throughout neural circuits to generate locomotion behaviors linked to the feeding or satiety states of an animal. Flavell seeks to uncover fundamental principles of neuromodulation of circuit function and to examine these neuromodulatory principles in mammalian models of switchable behavioral states. His long-term goal is to understand how neural circuits generate sustained behavioral states, and how physiological and environmental information is integrated into these circuits. Gaining a mechanistic understanding of how these circuits function will be essential to decipher the neural bases of sleep and mood disorders.