The Sex and Geometry of Inter-Organ Communication

Our research group explores the idiosyncrasies of adult organs: how they differ between the sexes or across life stages, and why they engage in crosstalk with other organs.

We were one of the first labs to tackle the study of the brain-gut axis using the powerful genetics of Drosophila: work that we have now extended to mouse and human models. We discovered that the brain-gut axes of males and females are very different, and that these intestinal sex differences impact food intake, gamete production and tumour susceptibility. We have also investigated how the intestine senses nutrients, revealing unexpected roles for metal sensing in the regulation of feeding and growth. I will present some of this work, as well as our ongoing attempts to shed some light on the molecular nature of this brain-gut communication and its spatiotemporal logic.

Find out more about the speaker