Charles Zuker is interested in the mechanisms underlying signal processing and information transfer in sensory systems. Zuker and his team use the mammalian taste system to understand how the outside world is represented in the brain to guide actions and behaviors. Taste behaviors are exquisitely modulated by the internal state (e.g., hunger, satiety, emotion, and expectation), thus they provide a powerful model for the dissection of brain circuits integrating the senses with our physiological and emotional states.
HHMI Investigator Charles Zuker and his lab are exploring how detection – of a taste or other sense – is transformed into perception. New research shows that a region of the brain can ramp the immune system both up and down, opening the door to new scientific discoveries—and to new approaches to tackling a wide range of immune system disorders and diseases, from rheumatoid arthritis to toxic shock syndrome. Scientists discover how fat triggers a gut-to-brain mechanism that drives us to keep consuming more of it. Their findings could one day lead to interventions to help treat obesity and associated disorders. The sensation of sweetness starts on the tongue, but sugar molecules also trip sensors in the gut that directly signal the brain. This could explain why artificial sweeteners fail to satisfy the insatiable craving for sugar. By mixing up cellular taste sensors in mice, HHMI Investigator Charles Zuker and colleagues show how the taste system continually remakes itself. Scientists show they can control whether mice perceive a taste as bitter or sweet by activating two small areas of the brain. HHMI researchers have identified a neural circuit in the subfornical organ that regulates thirst in mice.