Events & Calendars "Control Your Excitement: Inhibition of Escape Behavior in Zebrafish"

Dr. Bryan Monesson-Olson is a postdoctoral research associate in the biology department at Amherst College.

Research summary: Escaping from dangerous situations is something all animals have to do. How they do it is a complex question. One group of inhibitory receptors, the GABAA receptors, regulates a long list of circuits and behaviors in vertebrates, including escape behavior. Monesson-Olson studies how these receptors regulate escape behavior, and he uses zebrafish to study these questions. Using a combination of mRNA in situ hybridization, drug treatment, behavioral analysis and now electrophysiology, he is unraveling how these circuits function or fail to function.