Welcome to the Medler Lab

We study the physiology of signal transduction pathways and the regulation of these pathways in neuronal systems. We focus on peripheral sensory systems, primarily the taste system. Chemical sensory systems, which are comprised of olfaction and taste, play important roles in feeding, territorial recognition and social interactions. The taste system is used to determine whether potential food items will be ingested or rejected while the olfactory system is used in a multitude of behaviors such as kin recognition and mate selection. The peripheral taste system is made up of multiple cell types that depend on different signaling pathways to detect stimuli. As characterization of these cellular mechanisms continues, we can begin understanding how the brain gathers information about its surroundings.

The long-term goal of the lab is to understand how taste-evoked signals are generated and regulated within taste receptor cells and how these processes generate the stimulus signals that are sent to the brain. We use molecular and physiological techniques, primarily live cell imaging, to investigate how signaling mechanisms in taste cells function.

Artwork courtesy of Jhanna Flora