The Katz lab
Studying the structure and function of molluscan nervous systems

The need for alternative "model organisms" in neuroscience.

General principles can only be learned by sampling broadly. Yet, neuroscience as a field focuses on a small number of species for which many genetic tools have been developed such as fruit flies, nematode worms, zebra fish, and mice. However, there are no standard laboratory molluscs with similar tools.  We have been developing the nudibranch Berghia stephanieae as a species that can fill that gap. Our lab is performing research us transcriptomic and connectomics to answer questions about the neural basis of behavior and the development and structure of a molluscan brain.  By studying Berghia, we are making discoveries that cannot be made with other types of animals.