# Neural and molecular mechanisms of microbe-sensing in the control of animal behavior - Resubmission - 1

> **NIH NIH F31** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2022 · $38,350

## Abstract

Project Summary
Animals use chemosensation to evaluate their environment and instruct a wide range of
behaviors. Chemosensation is used to locate food and mates and to avoid threats. Such
chemosensory stimuli are often complex blends of molecules. How information encoded by the
multiple chemosensory neurons that sense these cues is integrated to form a representation of
the environment and inform behavior is poorly understood.
The microscopic roundworm C. elegans is an excellent model to study in order to determine how
animals decode complex chemosensory stimuli to instruct behavior. Its simple and stereotyped
behaviors are robustly regulated by chemosensory cues from its environment. Importantly,
powerful genetic tools and optical methods are available to study the circuits that process
chemosensory stimuli. This project will focus on how C. elegans uses its chemosensory system
to distinguish nutritive from pathogenic bacteria. C. elegans eats microbes, but it is also
susceptible to infection by pathogens. It is, therefore, critical that C. elegans rapidly detect and
avoid pathogens, and recent studies indicate that this is accomplished by chemosensation.
Previous experiments used an optical method to identify neurons that are differentially activated
by nutritive and pathogenic bacteria, and these studies will be extended by determining (1) how
the sensation of these microbes generates different patterns of neural activity and (2) how these
patterns of neural activity generate distinct foraging behaviors.
This project will be conducted at the New York University School of Medicine and will aid in
preparing the applicant for a career as an independent researcher. The applicant will engage in
professional development activities such as mentoring, teaching, and grant-writing workshops.
They will also present this work at institutional and international conferences on a regular basis.
Together, these studies will determine mechanisms by which complex chemosensory stimuli are
processed. In addition to advancing understanding of a fundamental process in sensation, these
studies will also impact how we understand defects of chemosensory processing that underlie
human diseases, e.g. sensory processing disorder, eating disorders such as obesity associated
with a failure to sense appetitive cues and sensory deficiencies that cause loss of chemesthesis.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10412977
- **Project number:** 5F31DC019045-02
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Benjamin Brissette
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $38,350
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10412977

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10412977, Neural and molecular mechanisms of microbe-sensing in the control of animal behavior - Resubmission - 1 (5F31DC019045-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10412977. Licensed CC0.

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