Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology

The main idea of my PhD project is to investigate how each of the two OB dopaminergic subpopulations processes ethologically relevant odors to understand how salient cues are represented in the brain. Specifically, I am focusing on odors from conspecifics of the opposite sex (sexual odors), since reproduction is one of the fundamental behaviors in which olfaction is mainly involved at least in rodents.

To this aim I’ll address the following three research objectives:
1) Validate a method to specifically label dopaminergic cells in the mouse OB for morphological analyses and in vivo functional imaging.
2) Localize specific OB areas of activation and characterize the OB dopaminergic cell activity in response to sexually relevant odors.
3) Validate the COUP-TFIfl/fl mouse line as a suitable model for the study of the OB dopaminergic population role in the olfactory system and investigate the impact of Nr2f1 knockout on the two OB dopaminergic cell subpopulations.
To achieve these goals, I will adopt a multidisciplinary approach encompassing mouse genetics, adeno-associated viral vector (AAVs) delivery and advanced imaging techniques such as light-sheet microscopy and two-photon functional imaging of calcium dynamics.