Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with Liqun Luo, PhD, HHMI, Stanford University

Talk Title: Neurobiology of Drives and Their Competition

 

Abstract: Because of the utmost importance of water and food, animals exhibit strong innate behaviors to search for and consume water or food when they are thirsty or hungry. These drives are also powerful means for acquiring learned skills and behavior. In this talk, I will summarize our recently published studies on linking thirst to motivated behavior and neural dynamics underlying thirst motivation. I will then discuss an unpublished study on how animals resolve competing thirst and hunger across time. These studies have been in close collaboration with Karl Deisseroth, performed by our joint PhD students.

 

Bio: Dr. Luo grew up in Shanghai, China, and earned his bachelor's degree in molecular biology from the University of Science and Technology of China. After obtaining his PhD in Brandeis University, and postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Luo started his own lab in the Department of Biology, Stanford University in December 1996. Together with his postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, Dr. Luo studies how neural circuits are assembled during development and how their architectures enable them to perform specific functions in adults. Dr. Luo is currently the Ann and Bill Swindells Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Biology, and Professor of Neurobiology by courtesy at Stanford University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He teaches neurobiology to Stanford undergraduate and graduate students. His singleauthor textbook “Principles of Neurobiology” (1st edition 2015; 2nd edition 2020) is widely used for undergraduate and graduate courses across the world.

 

Dr. Luo has served on the editorial boards of scientific journals including Neuron, eLife, Annual Review of Neuroscience, Cell, and PNAS. He has also served on the Pew Scholar National Committee and Scientific Advisory Committee of Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. He is recipient of the McKnight Technological Innovation in Neuroscience Award, the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, the Jacob Javits Award from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, HW Mossman Award from American Association of Anatomists, the Lawrence Katz Prize, the Pradel Research Award of National Academy of Sciences, and Society for Neuroscience Education in Neuroscience Award. Dr. Luo is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.