I’m a neuroscientist. My goal is to understand how neural circuits control arm and leg movements—a major challenge in neuroscience with implications for treating movement disorders, designing neural prostheses, and robotics. I tackle this challenge in the fruit fly, Drosophila. The unparalleled genetic tools and the compact nervous system of this model organism enable us to develop a detailed, mechanistic understanding of movement control.

In the Ache Lab (University of Würzburg), I study how neural circuits in the fly’s “spinal cord” translate movement instructions from the brain into leg movements during walking. I combine motion capture, electrophysiology, and two-photon calcium imaging of neural activity in behaving flies with comprehensive connectivity analyses (connectomics).  

In the Tuthill Lab (University of Washington), I used many of the same techniques to study how neural circuits use signals from movement sensors on the legs to control walking.