Neuroscience 2015
Area of Doctoral Study: Neuroscience (UMB)
Undergraduate Institute: University of California, Davis
Research Advisor: Steven Munger, Ph.D. / Adam C. Puche, Ph.D.
Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate, University of Florida, College of Medicine
Description of Research
The long-term goal of my studies is to understand how olfactory information is processed in the central nervous system (CNS). Most odors are encountered as complex mixtures of individual odorants. Thus, information regarding single odorant types must be processed in the context of other olfactory information (e.g., other odorants) if we are to make sense of our olfactory world. Significant progress has been made in understanding olfactory processing in the CNS, but much remains to be understood. To better understand the diverse mechanisms of olfactory coding, I plan to employ flavoprotein autofluorescence imaging and molecular tracing to map functional circuitry within the olfactory bulb associated with different olfactory subsystems, specifically the GC-D necklace/subsystem.