Seminar – Lindsey Macpherson, PhD

Dr. Macpherson's lab is interested in investigating the sense of taste and the molecules, cells, and circuits involved in chemosensation from the tongue and gut to the brain. Taste receptor cells on the tongue are specialized to be activated by one of the five taste qualities, and signal that information to discrete populations of neurons in the gustatory ganglia through "labeled lines." This hard-wired, labeled line connectivity pattern is essential for our ability to correctly detect and discriminate tastes. Her lab is interested in understanding how this gustatory circuit is organized at the cellular and molecular level.

Less well understood are chemosensory cells in the gut – which have many parallels to taste receptor cells – and may signal the presence of nutrients, toxins, and microbial metabolites to peripheral sensory neurons in the vagal ganglia. They aim to identify the cells and signaling mechanisms necessary for this gut-brain communication.