Stowers Assistant Investigator Neşet Özel, Ph.D., recently received the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience, a coveted grant for early-career investigators engaged in foundational neuroscience research. The fellowship recognizes scientists who have already contributed valuable research in their field and who demonstrate the greatest promise for future success.

Özel’s project, “Developmental reprogramming of innate behavior,” aims to locate and alter the neuronal genes involved during normal development by specifically targeting those that will lead to a change in fruit fly behavior in response to a visual stimulus.

“The importance of understanding the most fundamental principles of how the brain develops and forms connections is paramount,” said Özel. “Our hope is that our findings will eventually help us better understand the human brain and potentially assist in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease treatment and prevention. This grant will support one of the most ambitious projects in my lab.”

The Özel Lab investigates brain development by focusing on the part of the brain that processes vision in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This project builds upon the lab’s overall goal to understand the mechanisms governing gene regulation during the development and specialization of neurons, including the formation of neuronal connections or synapses. The lab uses this understanding to introduce changes to neural circuitry to predictably modify how flies process visual information. For example, visual processing can potentially be altered by genetically instructing neurons to connect with cell types they don’t typically contact.

“The project aims to take our general goal one step further where we will change the connections between neurons to predictably alter fruit fly behavior in response to specific visual stimuli,” said Özel.

The fellowship, a collaborative grant between Klingenstein Philanthropies and the Simons Foundation, seeks to fund novel and bold ideas that may not be applicable for traditional funding.