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Faculty
Sreekanth Chalasani
Assistant Professor
Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory
A central challenge in neuroscience is to understand how neural circuits in the brain transform environmental stimuli into appropriate behavioral outputs. Identification and functional characterization of each neuron within a circuit remains technically challenging in complex vertebrate brains, but invertebrate organisms offer the advantage of simpler, smaller nervous systems that nonetheless produce diverse and robust behaviors.
The nematode C. elegans provides a unique opportunity to study genes, neurons and neural circuit functions in the whole animals. Removal of food odors activates AWC chemosensory neurons and induces a locomotory search program. We apply a combination of genetics, functional imaging and behavioral analysis to study how this circuit regulates behavior.
We are also interested in extending these studies to the zebrafish larval model.
Video: Movie showing AWC calcium responses to removal of odor stimulus at 10 sec. The images are false colored such that violet indicates low fluorescence and red and white indicate high fluorescence.
Education
- B.S. Osmania University, India.
- Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania.
- Post doctoral research Rockefeller University (lab moved from University of California San Francisco).
Selected Publications
- Chalasani, S.H., Chronis, N., Tsunozaki, M., Gray, J.M., Ramot, D., Goodman, M.B., and Bargmann, C.I. (2007). Dissecting a neural circuit for olfactory behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 450, 63-70.
- Tsunozaki, M., Chalasani, S.H., and Bargmann, C.I. (2008). A behavioral switch: cGMP and PKC signaling in olfactory neurons reverses odor preference in C. elegans. Neuron 59, 959-971.
- Chalasani, S.H.*, Sabol, A.*, Xu, H., Gyda, M.A., Rasband, K., Granato, M., Chien, C.-B., and Raper, J.A. (2007). Stromal cell-derived factor (SDF-1) antagonizes Slit/Robo signaling in vivo. J. Neuroscience 27, 973-980.
- Chalasani, S.H., Baribaud, F., Coughlan, C.M., Sunshine, M.J., Lee, V.M.Y., Doms, R.W., Littman, D.R., and Raper, J.A. (2003). The chemokine Stromal cell-Derived Factor-1 promotes the survival of embryonic retinal ganglion cells. J. Neuroscience 23, 4601-4612.
- Chalasani, S.H., Sabelko, K.A., Sunshine, M.J., Littman, D.R., and Raper, J.A. (2003) The chemokine, SDF-1, reduces the effectiveness of multiple axonal repellents and is required for normal pathfinding. J. Neuroscience 23, 1360-1371.