The food we eat affects all aspects of our lives, including aging, ability to reproduce, lifespan, mental state and mood. For better or worse, we are what we eat. Yet, how the brain controls food choice is still a mystery. What are the neural processes that drive us to choose a pretzel over an apple, or a steak over ice cream? To tap into this problem researchers have to tackle difficult questions such as “how does the brain know which nutrients the body needs?” and “how is this information translated into decisions?”

We address these questions using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, one of the most powerful and versatile genetic animal models currently available. The fly allows us to combine a wide array of tools and approaches, which include, genetic circuit manipulations, activity imaging, automated, quantitative methods for studying behaviour, microbiome manipulations, and tissue specific large scale RNAi screens. Team members use this wide array of approaches since it enables us to implement an integrative neuroscience approach, necessary to solve this whole-organism problem

Read more about our research HERE