Sensory Systems

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor of Cellular and Structural Biology

EDUCATION:
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1975

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Development and Organization of the Chemical Senses

The chemical senses, including taste, smell and trigeminal sensitivity, play an important role in social and ingestive activities of all animals. A major emphasis in my laboratory is on questions concerning the development and organization of these systems in several vertebrate models. Three major areas are under investigation at present:

1) morphology and function of solitary chemosensory cells (see Finger et al. PNAS 2003) in protection of the airways and gut
2) the cellular organization and development of taste buds (see Finger et al. Science 2005)
3) regulation of feeding behavior by taste and other oropharyngeal chemoreceptors.