New Center Tackles the Wide Array of Intriguing, Adaptive Biology

Fascinating biology is all around us.

Some of it is very different from our own. For instance, while we shiver through winter or sweat through summer, other species change their body temperature, slow their heart rate, and shut down their metabolism until temperatures are more hospitable.

On the other hand, there’s biology, like touch, that’s widely shared but may work quite differently across species.

Uncovering how these behaviors and senses arise and differ would greatly advance fundamental understanding of biology and offer new routes to treating conditions such as metabolic syndrome, anorexia, neuropathies, infertility, and more.

Yale School of Medicine’s new Center for Neuroethology and Physiological Plasticity is focused on this area of research. The center, recently launched and co-directed by Slav Bagriantsev, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular physiology, and Elena Gracheva, PhD, professor of neuroscience and of cellular and molecular physiology, is the first of its kind in the United States. Its goal is to drive comparative research and convene scientists working in this field.

“To really comprehend the complexity of life, we have to look at all kinds,” says Gracheva. “With this center, we want to bring together researchers working in this space and coordinate our efforts. Together we’ll learn far more than we will individually.”

The center has four research directions:

• The neurophysiological reprogramming direction will focus on the adaptations required to survive environmental challenges such as food scarcity, temperature changes, and tissue damage. Understanding these capabilities may be critical to enhancing resilience in the context of stressed ecosystems.
• In the area of sensory plasticity, researchers will study how damage to one sense, say sight, can trigger compensatory responses in another, such as hearing, looking at the molecular, cellular, and circuit pathways that enable those changes.
• While optimal timing for reproduction balances environmental stressors, seasons, food availability, and temperature, some species engage in reproduction despite environmental challenges that threaten their own survival. Center researchers will investigate the biological processes behind reproductive timing in those instances.
• The center will build theoretical models connecting behavioral needs to neurophysiological reprogramming, sensory plasticity, and reproductive timing. This effort, led by center member Benjamin Machta, PhD, associate professor of physics, will be used to investigate how biological systems find and stabilize their critical functions in the face of internal and environmental changes.

“The center is driven by interesting biological phenomena, and our goal is to help researchers find the best way to study them,” says Bagriantsev. “To that end, we’ll be establishing cross-campus collaborations, developing new technology, designing methods to synergize data, and providing spaces and events for the research community to gather.”

This collaborative approach is already reflected in the center’s membership. Martha Muñoz, PhD, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, has joined the center, bringing an evolutionary lens that complements the physiological, neurobiological, and modeling expertise already in place and strengthens ties between Yale School of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Furthering this effort to build a community, the center will host conferences and workshops to convene researchers from across campus and from other institutions. Gracheva and Bagriantsev will also continue their long-standing Sensory Physiology Club through which they introduce local middle and high school students to the study of physiology.

The center is open for membership to current Yale researchers and will soon begin recruiting new faculty. Among those joining is Selmaan Chettih, PhD, an incoming assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience, whose expertise in the neural basis of natural behaviors will strengthen the center’s research in neuroethology.

“Under Elena’s and Slav’s leadership, this center will help fill major gaps in our understanding of the biological processes underlying adaptive behavioral strategies and sensory plasticity,” says Tony Koleske, PhD, deputy dean for research (basic science) at Yale School of Medicine and Ensign Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.