Craig Montell

A central question in neurobiology is how an animal senses the environment and uses this information to modify behavior and decision making. Our laboratory is defining the mechanisms through which environmental temperature, light, gustatory and olfactory cues, and mechanical forces influence behavior. To tackle these problems, we are using the fly, Drosophila melanogaster, because it allows us to employ a combination of molecular, cellular, biochemical, electrophysiological and genetic approaches.

One of the key sensory receptors that we are characterizing are TRP channels, which in one animal or another responds to virtually all types of sensory inputs and impacts on a wide range of behaviors. We are also deciphering polymodal sensory roles of gustatory receptors and ionotropic receptors, and defining the behaviors that they control. We are unraveling multiple light-independent roles for rhodopsins, and posit that their ancient roles were in chemosensation rather than light sensation. Our long-term goal is to explain the cellular and molecular mechanisms through which different sensory inputs are received, integrated in the brain, and regulate an animal’s plastic behavioral responses to a changing environment.

Most recently, we have started developing a variety of strategies to control the mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti, which spreads Dengue, Zika and other diseases. As part of this endeavor, we are deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling this mosquito.