Welcome to the Tracey Lab
Molecular neuroscience of Drosophila
Our lab is interested in mechanisms that allow innate behaviors to be encoded by genomes. Many behaviors are innate, from the suckling of a newborn human infant, to the “mating ritual” of a black widow spider. We are mainly focused on understanding escape behaviors that are produced by Drosophlia larvae. We work at many different levels, from the molecule to the behavior.
We are located in the Snyderman Genome Science Research Building at the Duke University Medical Center. This building also houses the Center for Human Genetics.
Photo caption: The green cells are the multidendritic pain sensing neurons of the Drosophila larvae. The nociceptors in Drosophila morphologically resemble vertebrate nociceptors (shown in red (from Ramon y Cajal)).
