Thomas Bozza
Edgar C. Stuntz Distinguished Professor
- bozza@northwestern.edu
- Website
- 847-467-2870
- Pancoe 2-119
Specializations
Regions(s): Brain and Behavior; Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience; Neurogenetics
Research interest(s): Neural circuitry underlying olfactory driven behaviors; Mouse molecular genetics; Development of neural circuits
Research Summary
Molecular Genetics and Physiology of Olfaction
Molecular recognition underlies all biological processes. A fundamental question in biology is how systems, from individual proteins to organisms, recognize molecular structure. The vertebrate olfactory system is a remarkable molecular recognition device. Animals can detect odorous chemicals at extremely low concentrations, and can discriminate among an enormous number of structurally diverse molecules. The long-term goal of our work is to understand how the nervous system encodes molecular information, and how neural circuits give rise to learned and innate olfactory-driven behaviors.
Selected Publications
- Smear M, Resulaj A, Zhang J, Bozza T, and Rinberg D. (2013) Multiple perceptible signals from a single olfactory glomerulus. Nature Neuroscience, 16: 1687-1691.
- Dewan A, Pacifico R, Zhan R, Rinberg D, and Bozza T (2013) Non-redundant coding of aversive odours in the main olfactory pathway. Nature, 497:486-489.
- Zhang J, Pacifico R, Cawley D, Feinstein P, and Bozza T. (2013) Ultrasensitive detection of amines by a trace amine-associated receptor. J Neurosci, 33(7): 3228-3239.
- Pacifico, R., Dewan, A., Cawley, D., Guo, C., and Bozza, T. (2012). An Olfactory Subsystem that Mediates High-Sensitivity Detection of Volatile Amines. Cell Reports. 2(1):76-88.
- Zhang J, Huang G, Dewan A, Feinstein P, and Bozza T. (2012) Uncoupling stimulus specificity and glomerular location in the mouse olfactory system. Mol Cell Neurosci, 51:79-88.
- Smear M, Shusterman R, O'Connor R, Bozza T, and Rinber D. (2011). Perception of sniff phase in mouse olfaction. Nature, 479: 397–400.
- Bozza, T, Vassalli, A., Fuss, S., Zhang, J.-J., Weiland, B., Pacifico, R., Feinstein, P., and Mombaerts, P. (2009). Mapping of Class I and Class II Odorant Receptors to Glomerular Domains by Two Distinct Types of Olfactory Sensory Neurons. Neuron, 61: 220-233.
Selected Honors/Awards
- 2011 Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant
- 2009 Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant
- 2008 Visiting Scientist, HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus
- 2007 Whitehall Foundation, Grant in Vertebrate and Invertebrate Neurobiology
- 2001 Presidential Fellowship, The Rockefeller University
- 1998 National Research Service Award (NIH-NIDCD)
- 1997 Tucker Award, International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste, San Diego, CA