John Tuthill

Research in John Tuthill’s lab seeks to answer a fundamental question: how does the nervous system use proprioceptive feedback to rapidly and robustly coordinate movements of the body? They mainly study this question in the fruit fly, Drosophila, because of the abundance of genetic tools for identifying neuronal cell-types and the accessibility of fly sensorimotor circuits for in vivo recording and imaging. Another advantage of the fly is that its compact nervous system is amenable to systematic characterization at the molecular, cellular, and circuit levels. The Tuthill lab specifically focuses on the fly’s ventral nerve cord (VNC), which functions like the vertebrate spinal cord to sense and control the limbs. They aim to achieve a comprehensive understanding of how neural circuits in the VNC function in a walking fly, including adaptive responses to external stimuli and internal changes, such as injury. A deeper understanding of proprioceptive feedback control has the potential to transform the way in which we understand and treat movement disorders.