Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology

The de Lartigue lab studies the neurobiology of eating. Our research focuses on how sensing of internal stimuli, especially meal-related cues from the gut, influences the decision of when, where and how much to eat.
My lab has been at the forefront of developing novel tools to visualize, map, record, and manipulate subsets of vagal sensory neurons. Using these tools, we have been addressing fundamental questions about the role of these previously intractable neurons in the control of eating, including: 1) the range of gut signals that are sensed in response to a meal, 2) the types of feeding behaviors that these neurons control, and 3) the mechanisms of action. By combining viral tract tracing, in vivo optogenetics, and behavioral neuroscience approaches we have demonstrated a link between the gut and brain circuits involved in meal termination, motivated behavior, as well as learning & memory. These findings published in a number of high-impact publications – including Cell, Gastroenterology, Current Biology, Nature Communications and Cell Reports – identify a previously unsuspected role of the gut-brain axis in diverse aspects of feeding behavior.