Qili Liu
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Neuroscience
Animals don't eat only because they need calories. They also crave specific nutrients, and they eat for reasons unrelated to need, such as pleasure, social experience or stress.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
Drosophila
fruit fly
feeding behavior
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- Identify the neural circuits and molecules forming the negative feedback loop that controls protein-specific appetite in Drosophila, using large-scale genetic analyses, behavioral measurements, functional imaging and patch-clamp electrophysiology.
- Determine how protein hunger is coordinated with other types of hunger in flies, using quantitative feeding assays, lipidomics and stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry to track nutrient intake.
- Test how environmental blue light and social isolation change food choice in Drosophila, combining genetic approaches with quantitative behavioral measurements.
More about the research
Scientists know a lot about the brain pathways that match eating to energy needs. Much less is known about how these other drives to eat work. Using the fruit fly Drosophila and its specific appetite for protein as a model, this project asks how particular nutritional needs, and influences unrelated to need, create appetites.
Why it matters
This basic research could explain how the brain drives appetite for specific nutrients and how environmental factors like blue light and social isolation shape food choice. That knowledge could eventually inform our understanding of feeding behaviors that are not driven by calorie needs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sung Soo Kim
University of California-Santa Barbara, CA·Neuroscience·Early-career
Identify which visual features two types of ER neurons extract in the fruit fly anterior visual pathway, using two-photon calcium imaging of tethered flies viewing stimuli in a 360-degree full-color virtual-reality arena.
Anupama Dahanukar
University of California-Riverside, CA·Neuroscience
Identify genes that reduce responses of bitter, deterrent taste neurons to noni fatty acids in Drosophila sechellia, testing candidate Gustatory receptors, Odorant-binding proteins and Ionotropic receptors.
James Liao
University of Florida, FL·Neuroscience
Compare lateral line sensitivity between surface fish and blind cavefish across larval development, using in vivo patch clamp recordings from neurons connected to flow-sensing hair cells.
The school
University of California-San Francisco: 89 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 164 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.