Spotlight on Sam!

Congrats to Sam Stea, Tariq Brown, Rebecca Oramas, John Hernandez and Reza Azanchi on publication of 'Characterizing choice behavior in Drosophila melanogaster olfactory classical conditioning' in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

In this paper we describe how to use a simple circular arena with two odor ports at either end to determine which behaviors flies display when they are deciding to approach an odor previously paired with sugar or avoid an odor previously paired with electric shock. If you wanted to try this yourself, all the materials to build the apparatus are available in the paper Supplementary Information and on the Kaun-Lab Github.

Sam took over this project from Tariq and Reza, and made it his own for the bulk of his Biotechnology M.Sc. research. Check out the Early Career Research Spotlight on Sam in the Journal of Experimental Biology that highlights Sam's scientific journey and research focus.