https://www.zukerlab.org/publications daily 0.75 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586271927032-13NDUNUYZUVCT5TIQ4C0/BrainActivatedNeurons.jpg Publications https://www.zukerlab.org/contact-us daily 0.75 2020-04-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586291024174-XJVGNBSY53ONBU73G2MF/JLGSC.jpeg Contact Us - Zuker Lab Columbia University Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute Jerome L. Greene Science Center 3227 Broadway, L08-047 New York, New York 10027 T: +1-212-853-1039 E: lr2653@columbia.edu https://www.zukerlab.org/place-learning-spatial-navigation daily 0.75 2020-08-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586287620173-C35XK19DR4IOZK8DW7GO/Place%2BLearning.jpg Place Learning & Spatial Navigation - Spatial Learning in Drosophila In addition to being a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a faculty member in the Columbia University Biochemistry and Neuroscience departments, Dr. Zuker was also a Senior Fellow at the Janelia Farm Research Campus. In collaboration with Michael Reiser at Janelia Farm, two MD/Ph.D. students from the Zuker lab and Columbia’s MSTP program have studied the place learning capabilities of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (19). While many insects use visual landmarks to precisely locate their nest, prey, or foraging area, the extent to which flies use vision to navigate and remember specific locations had been unclear. Using a suite of molecular and genetic tools available in the fruit fly, combined with a novel virtual reality behavioral arena, we explored visually guided navigation to help elucidate how an insect knows where it is, and where it is going. https://www.zukerlab.org/home daily 1.0 2020-04-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586461206941-1DPHGP6M1ZEBWAAOQLGR/new+image+for+home+page.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586948026777-2FAHZAQ5O416I4IGR6QO/HHMI-vertical-signature-color.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586948057766-8942V7T9LC2SWJKCXOX0/CU.png Home https://www.zukerlab.org/general-4 daily 0.75 2020-04-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586287493663-H66UWA52E0SU3H22NKJK/Sweet%2526Bitter%2BBrain.jpg Mammalian Taste - The Biology of Taste The taste system is in charge of evaluating the nutritious content of food sources, and preventing the ingestion of toxic substances. Sweet taste permits the identification of energy-rich nutrients, umami allows the recognition of amino acids, salt taste ensures the proper dietary electrolyte balance, and sour and bitter warn against the intake of potentially noxious and/or poisonous chemicals. Surprisingly, although we can taste a large repertoire of chemical entities, it is now generally accepted that qualitatively they evoke very few distinct taste sensations: sweet, bitter, sour, salty and savory (or umami). While this repertoire may appear modest, it has accommodated the evolutionary need for an effective and reliable platform to help recognize and distinguish key components of the animals’ diet. In humans, taste has the additional value of contributing to the overall pleasure and enjoyment of a meal. Notably, taste behaviors are exquisitely modulated by the internal state (for example hunger, satiety, emotion and expectation), thus providing a powerful experimental model for the study of brain circuits mediating innate rewarding and aversive behaviors, and their modulation by our physiological and emotional state. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586344476736-0DF86BM3JNQJ9III4QOV/Tongue-TRs.jpg Mammalian Taste In rodents, taste information travels from taste receptor cells (TRC) in the oral cavity to the primary gustatory cortex (insular cortex) via four neural stations: TRCs to taste ganglia (e.g. geniculate or petrosal), then to nucleus of the solitary tract, the parabrachial nucleus, the thalamus, and finally, to the taste cortex (1,2). Over the past 20 years, we have identified the cells and receptors for every one of the five basic taste qualities (3,4,5)(6,7), and demonstrated that each taste is mediated by its own receptor expressed in distinct classes of taste receptor cells (sweet cells, bitter cells, sour cells, etc.). This work defined the identity of the sensory detectors that allow us to recognize and respond to food sources, and elucidated the fundamental logic of taste coding at the periphery: one taste-one cell, each hardwired via labeled lines to trigger predetermined behaviors (8,9,10,11). At the periphery, the five basic classes of taste cells signal to a matching set of ganglion neurons (e.g. sweet TRC-> sweet ganglion neuron, bitter TRC->bitter ganglion neuron)(12). How do ganglion processes identify their proper TRC partners? We combined single-cell functional imaging and mouse genetics to demonstrate that sweet and bitter TRCs use distinct signaling molecules to guide wiring of the peripheral taste system. Indeed, we engineered animals with mis-wired taste systems, whereby bitter neurons now respond to sweet tastants, or sweet neurons that respond to bitter (13). Together, these results uncovered the wiring of the taste system at the periphery, and proved the labeled line organization of the taste system Studying the coding and organization of the taste system in the brain showed that different taste modalities are represented in taste cortex as a map (14). By manipulating the cortical fields representing the two most salient taste qualities, sweet and bitter, we demonstrated that it is possible to directly control an animal’s internal representation, sensory perception, and most notably their behavioral actions, in the absence of any sensory input (15). The ability of the taste system to identify a tastant (what does it taste like?) enables animals to recognize and discriminate between the different basic taste qualities. The valence of a tastant (is it appetitive or aversive?) specifies its hedonic value, and the execution of selective behaviors. Recently, we showed that the amygdala -one of the key brain centers involved in the coding of emotions – is necessary and sufficient to drive valence-specific behaviors to taste stimuli (16). By manipulating selective taste inputs to the amygdala, we demonstrated that it is possible to impose a positive or negative valence to a neutral water stimulus, and even to reverse the hedonic value of a sweet or bitter tastant. Remarkably, animals with silenced amygdala no longer exhibit behavior that reflects the valence associated with delivery of sweet and bitter stimuli. Nonetheless, these animals can still identify and discriminate between tastants. These results help explain how the taste system generates stereotypic and predetermined attractive and aversive taste behaviors, and substantiate distinct neural substrates for the discrimination of taste identity and the assignment of valence. https://www.zukerlab.org/our-love-for-sugar daily 0.75 2020-04-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586298269599-NR7R8015B6JCV4PEK2YM/BrainSugar.jpg Our Love for Sugar - Our Insatiable Appetite for Sugar Sugar has been one of the most impactful drivers of societal inequality and medical challenges in the modern world. Sugar (originally from sugar-cane) was first produced in New Guinea some 10,000 years ago, and brought to Europe as crystalized “honey powder” from the Indian Territories by the armies of Alexander the Great. By the late 19th century, millions of Africans had been enslaved and shipped across the Atlantic to farm sugar-cane. In 1800 the average American consumed approximately 7 pounds of sugar a year. Today, the average American consumes well over 100 pounds of added sugar annually, and accordingly the world has experienced catastrophic increases in obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Our craving for sugar is rooted in brain circuits dedicated to reward the recognition of high energy food sources -a mechanism essential for animals in the wild, and most certainly critical in our own evolutionary trajectory, but terribly misused and abused by humans today -in essence by hijacking this pathway for our own pursuit of pleasure (17). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586260833307-G9V5QIDS0A77KQE3H5BM/Sugar+Gut-Brain.jpg Our Love for Sugar - Recently, we have shown that sugar acts in the gut to activate a neural circuit that communicates to the brain the presence of sugar (18). Importantly, this gut-to-brain communication axis is activated by sugar but not artificial sweeteners, and functions as the principal conduit driving preference for sugar. Indeed, we engineered animals where synaptic activity in this gut-to-brain circuit was genetically silenced, and prevented the development of behavioural preference for sugar. Furthermore, we showed that hijacking this circuit by chemogenetic activation can create preferences to novel stimuli. Together, these findings revealed a gut-to-brain post-ingestive sugar-sensing pathway critical for the development of sugar preference. In addition, they explain the neural basis for the differences in the effects of sweeteners versus sugar (i.e. why they have failed to substitute for sugar’s behavioral effects), since unlike sugar, they do not activate this preference circuit. https://www.zukerlab.org/currentmembers daily 0.75 2026-02-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586359414635-ZB173DNW1WM6S521CABR/L1000940-1.jpg Current Members Charles Zuker Principal Investigator cz2195 at columbia.edu Curriculum Vitae https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586787946696-QPFLYJOZ1MS42JEC4ER6/DSC00145.JPG Current Members - Jose Cánovas Schalchli Jose Cánovas Schalchli Postdoc jc4598 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1650725730548-59Z5260HJSR04N6SL9PC/Mengtong+Li.jpg Current Members - Mengtong Li ml4484 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586722464087-35PARZ386AN5LB7IB95L/IMG_20180106_142944.jpg Current Members - Miguel Villavicencio Camarillo mav2171 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/5698ffc7-1ad9-4545-a522-b0e3db92dc38/Audrey.jpg Current Members - Make it stand out Audrey (Haorui) Wang hw3039 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/5087042a-54db-45b1-9b51-93dacd0c92bd/Ruihuan+Yu.jpg Current Members - Make it stand out Ruihuan Yu ry2472 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/10ec2b77-7e6f-4f59-8b39-f847a6959f53/Jakub+Kubina.jpeg Current Members - Jakub Kubina jk5101 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1f86599d-ceb7-47a1-a56c-8727bd10f04b/IMG_5596.jpeg Current Members - Make it stand out Meredyth Bowman mb5330 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/9c1155e5-714d-4443-9765-a7244b01c568/Augustine+Huh.JPG Current Members - Make it stand out Augustine Huh ah4368 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586481164129-324LXQ8WN4TDNHU1B9LI/136f67ff-016c-4b9a-bac8-912902a5f1c0.JPG Current Members Laura Rickman lr2653 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1650843462629-WNLPXVACWG0DQV2WC7OX/Mingjian.JPG Current Members - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/e6cf6d88-0d6b-4d25-ba87-d403843f83a1/Bonan+Liu.jpeg Current Members - Bonan Liu bl3105 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586869773803-MRTBGNU6K90W6QQW7FRG/_MG_7850_m2.jpg Current Members - Li Wang lw2622 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1603119042619-ED72TEH7XVXKEE0TE8DI/IMG_2585.jpg Current Members Zhengyuan Lu zl2814 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/70f45d56-73b7-4fdd-a741-b07d47a04b7e/Jennifer+Paul.jpeg Current Members - Make it stand out Jennifer Paul jp4659 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/82b009c8-964f-4556-8c2b-d59a4a38a36a/IMG_1093+%281%29.JPG Current Members - Make it stand out Julie (Zaiqi) Wu zw16 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1650843343009-TYDTRUDK92WLTFU338QF/Ahmed.jpg Current Members - Ahmed Mohamed am5482 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/496586b1-9d6c-4d98-8d2a-4d53c6e332a3/IMG_9770.jpg Current Members - Ke Yang ky2558 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1586699978827-ZU50IDJW25X5SD5MWTRR/mmexport1503683427751.jpg Current Members - Juen Zhang jz2956 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/03aed143-1841-46fd-a84c-ed3c2c2d723e/Hanye+Wang.JPG Current Members - Make it stand out Hanye Wang hw3032 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/d00fa598-ce37-43c2-a1b5-c7aba53b434f/Lilly+Rosenberg.JPEG Current Members - Make it stand out Lilly Rosenberg lar2221 at columbia.edu https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/f2db4cf3-c32f-4f84-bc83-b92bb0f69463/Jiashuo+Zhang.jpg Current Members - Make it stand out Martin (Jiashuo) Zhang jz4078 at columbia.edu https://www.zukerlab.org/roger-tsien daily 0.75 2020-04-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1588040823367-8QFS8BXOMZHG1I8002G1/Young.jpg Roger Tsien https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1588040855606-Y0C7MWTPN9MQW9V0YC1A/Nobel.jpg Roger Tsien https://www.zukerlab.org/lab-work-in-the-news daily 0.75 2022-07-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1658545824785-0L6FBFU74T7QDTUT6MBG/Huberman+Podcast.png Lab Work in the News - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1658545745274-3K9UPSDXWGEALWC0OVOP/NYTimes+2009.png Lab Work in the News - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1658545698172-8URV8WJ751PHZYIXIL8M/New+Yorker.png Lab Work in the News - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e8c5d989638d05da5c49dd4/1658545209041-U4LWXPYKTQPCG87FDRF8/NYTimes+2000.png Lab Work in the News - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.