About the Lab

Our lab is part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and located at the Janelia Farm Research Campus, a unique, world-class research community in Ashburn, VA. Over the next five years, Janelia Farm Research Campus (JFRC) will grow to over 400 employees, to include top scientists, physicists, engineers and operations staff.

Our Research

The Simpson lab uses the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study organizational principles underlying behavioral circuitry. In one approach, we investigate how populations of neurons participate in behaviors by acutely changing activity in distinct groups of neurons in the adult fly brain. By comparing the locations of neurons that produce similar behavioral outcomes, we make rough structure-function maps of the fly brain and explore which regions might form neural circuits driving the behaviors. We also have screens underway that are focused on the circuitry involved in specific behaviors, as well as projects that use alternative ways to identify neurons active during those behaviors. We are participating in building anatomical nomenclature for the fly brain and are developing tools to optically probe neural connectivity and neural activity. This research uses fly genetics, confocal microscopy, behavior analysis, and electrophysiology.

We currently have one open post-doctoral position and are particularly interested in candidates with experience in quantitative behavioral analysis.