# Neurogenetic Approaches to Study Directed Behavior in Drosophilla

> **NIH NIH R01** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $442,257

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY:
The long term goal is to provide a framework to understand how a simple, innate behavior emerges from the
activity of the nervous system. For this, molecular genetics techniques, electrophysiology and imaging
technologies to study the mechanisms underlying temperature processing and preference in Drosophila -a
system ideally suited for a comprehensive genetic and molecular dissection of neural circuits and behaviors,
are applied. The lab's recent work has demonstrated that a simple sensory map represents temperature stimuli
in the fly brain. It has also shown that a coordinated ensemble of second order neurons extracts information
about the sign, onset, magnitude and duration of a temperature change from this simple map. The research is
now proposing to delve deeper into the cellular and molecular mechanism that make this transformation
possible. The expectation is that the results of this work will reveal new mechanisms and principles of
somatosensory processing in the nervous system, will complement discoveries on differential feature
extraction in other sensory modalities, and will have implications of interest to the broader neuroscience
community, informing work on information processing within neural circuits. This work is also expected to
contribute to the general understanding of the function of the neural circuits that control somatosensory
responses (temperature and pain) in animals, potentially providing insights on genetic and neurological
conditions which affect neuronal excitability resulting in devastating medical conditions such as chronic pain.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9821741
- **Project number:** 5R01NS086859-07
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Marco Gallio
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $442,257
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2014-05-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9821741

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9821741, Neurogenetic Approaches to Study Directed Behavior in Drosophilla (5R01NS086859-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9821741. Licensed CC0.

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