The Brain-Body Connection

How does your brain know when you’re hungry, tired, or sick? And how do those signals shape decisions, behavior, and the body’s long-term health? This lecture explores these big questions with a small but scientifically powerful animal: the fruit fly. Although flies and humans exhibit obvious differences, we share a remarkable overlap when it comes to genes, including those involved in brain function, sleep, and disease. In this event, three experts bring together perspectives from neuroscience, genetics, and physiology to uncover what the fruit fly can tell us about our own brain-body connection.

Wes Grueber, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, and Neuroscience, at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute, Co-Director of the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, Assistant Dean of Career Development and Associate Director of Biomedical Graduate Training in the Vagelos Institute of Biomedical Research Education, will open our event by sharing his research on how the brain senses the body’s internal state. Even as larvae, fruit flies constantly monitor their bodies and surroundings to make decisions about finding food, balancing gas exchange when submerged in food, and evading threats. With relatively few neurons compared to the nervous system of humans, how does the fruit fly continually create a full picture of its current status and future needs? Identifying the key genes and cell types fruit flies use can reveal potential mechanisms behind the complex process of internal sensing in mammals.

Mimi Shirasu-Hiza, PhD, Professor of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Vice Chair of Education and the Assistant Dean of Mentoring for the Vagelos Institute of Biomedical Research Education PhD Pathway program, will then explore how circadian rhythms, or the body’s natural clock, impact an animal’s physiology. Like humans, flies go through natural ups and downs in activity throughout the 24-hour day and share many of the same molecular players that regulate their circadian rhythms. Fruit flies offer an opportunity to discover the molecular mechanisms involved in circadian regulation of fundamental processes like sleep, metabolism, and immunity, and how disruptions may impact disease, aging, and survival. By leveraging the fly’s rapid life cycle and well-described genome, Dr. Shirasu-Hiza’s work provides a close look at the physiological drivers shaping health and longevity.

Following the two talks, Amanda González-Segarra, PhD, Alan Kanzer Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute, will moderate a discussion and Q&A with the speakers. Audience questions are welcomed, either submitted during registration or live at the event.