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Nose Lab
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The lab uses Drosophila larvae to explore the blueprint and operating principles of neural circuits.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring the blueprint and operating principles of neural circuits
The Nose Lab studies what kinds of circuits the brain and nervous system use to process information.
The brain and nervous system form a complex circuit in which large numbers of neurons are connected through synapses.
Using the relatively simple nervous system of the Drosophila larva, the lab investigates both the wiring between neurons and their patterns of activity.
The goal is to understand the brain by identifying the basic circuits that serve as its functional units and modeling them.
Key terms
- Synapse
- The junction between neurons, where a signal is passed on to the next neuron
- Connectomics
- A comprehensive analysis of which neurons are connected to which other neurons in the brain
- Calcium imaging
- A method that visualizes neuronal activity with light, making use of the fact that intracellular calcium increases when a neuron becomes active
- Optogenetics
- A technique in which light-responsive proteins are introduced into specific neurons so that their activity can be controlled with light
NewsLab news
A doctoral student won the Best Presentation Award at a meeting of the Transformative Research Areas project
A doctoral student won the MBSJ-EMBO Poster Award 2025 at the Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan
A paper from a collaboration with researchers at the University of Tsukuba was published
A doctoral student won the Best Poster Award at a meeting of the Transformative Research Areas project
A paper on segment-by-segment axon guidance was published in eLife
ResearchResearch themes
The lab analyzes both the structure of neural circuits (the wiring between neurons) and their dynamics (the patterns of neuronal activity) to explore how information flows through a circuit and the logic behind it. It applies new techniques such as connectomics, calcium imaging, and optogenetics to the Drosophila larval nervous system.
*Illustrative imageCentral circuits that generate motor patterns
Using the larva's peristaltic locomotion as a model, the lab searches for neurons that are active at specific moments during movement and examines their roles by manipulating their activity with optogenetics. It has identified circuits involved in the speed of locomotion and in how activity propagates from one body segment to the next.
*Illustrative imageDecoding the activity of many neurons
The lab measures the activity of the majority of neurons in the larval nervous system over time, and captures the large-scale dynamics of the whole circuit using mathematical methods such as clustering and dimensionality reduction. Combined with optical manipulation and theoretical models, this approach is used to study how population activity gives rise to behavior.
*Illustrative imageHow circuits select behaviors
Using the larva's switching between forward and backward crawling as a model, the lab studies the circuits that underlie behavioral choice. It has found neurons that are active only during forward or backward crawling, as well as neurons that are active at the moment of switching, and is clarifying the circuit structure they form.
*Illustrative imageHow functional neural circuits are formed
The lab studies the process by which large numbers of neurons wire to one another and assemble into functioning circuits. In particular, it explores how appropriate motor circuits are formed when the results of movement are fed back to the circuit itself.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Nose Lab include faculty, affiliated researchers, doctoral and master's students, and administrative assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorAkinao NosePublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorMatsunaga TeruyukiPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Drosophila larvae mariometzler” Mario Metzler / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Central circuits that generate motor patterns: “Drosophila Suzukii Larva” Voronko / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Decoding the activity of many neurons: “Drosophila ZNS01” Jcb herrmann / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- How circuits select behaviors: “Drosophila paulistorum larva” Jonathan Haars / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How functional neural circuits are formed: “Drosophila busckii larva” Caroline Harding, MAF / CC BY 3.0 au (cropped)
- Related lab (岡田研究室): “Multicolor fluorescence image of a living HeLa cell” 8x57is / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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- Related lab (伊藤(創祐)研究室): “Belousov Zhabotinsky reaction ( )” Stephen Morris / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (古澤研究室): “E coli at 10000x, original” Photo by Eric Erbe, digital colorization by Christopher Pooley, both of USDA, ARS, EMU. / Public domain (cropped)
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