Vivek Venkatachalam

Sponsor: Brandeis University

Establishing sensory functions of pharyngeal enteric neurons in C. elegans 

Enteric neurons of the gut play important roles in sensing internal cues such as ingested chemicals and mechanical stimuli, and in turn, regulate gut motility, digestive processes, and gut-brain interactions. We will investigate how enteric neurons of the foregut in the nematode C. elegans detect diverse sensory stimuli and regulate feeding behavior and physiology. We expect that findings from this work will provide new information about the conserved functions of the enteric nervous system across species.