Abstract
The progress of a meal is controlled by sensory feedback from the gut that is generated during eating. These sensory signals are transmitted by vagal afferents to the caudal brainstem, but how they are integrated to determine when a meal should end is unknown. A major challenge has been the inability to perform neural recordings in the caudal brainstem of awake, behaving animals. I will describe our work developing methods for brainstem recordings in behaving mice, and what these recordings have taught us about the signals that control food intake.
Biography
Zachary Knight is a Professor in the Department of Physiology at UCSF and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His lab studies the neural mechanisms that control homeostasis, including especially the regulation of hunger and thirst. Zack received his B.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from UCSF, where he performed research in the lab of Kevan Shokat. Zack then performed postdoctoral studies in physiology with Jeffrey Friedman at Rockefeller University, before returning to UCSF to start his independent lab in 2012.