How do animals use odors to guide natural behaviors?

The Odor 2 Action logo, which centers around a neuron that has flowers adorning the dendrites. A fruit fly and a bee hover near the flowers, while a mouse sits at the end of the axon terminals

The Odor2Action network leverages team science to achieve a greater understanding of unresolved questions in olfaction and neuroscience.


ABOUT ODOR2ACTION

The Odor2Action network brings together international scientists to solve classic, unresolved questions in neuroscience. Using the olfactory circuit, we aim to achieve an end-to-end understanding of how brains organize and process information from odors to guide adaptive behaviors. Through highly synergistic and inclusive team science, Odor2Action strives to create a model of open data and technology sharing that accelerates discoveries across the scientific community.


OUR RESEARCH

Animals use odor cues to navigate through their environments, helping them locate targets and assess danger. Much of how animal brains organize, read out, and respond to odor stimuli across spatial and temporal scales is not well understood.

To tackle these questions, Odor2Action uses a highly interdisciplinary team science approach. Our work uses fruit fly, honeybee, and mouse models to determine how neural representations of odor are generated, reformatted, and translated to generate useful behaviors that guide how animals interact with their environment.

 

 

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PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS


Logos of participating institutions. The lead institution for the network is the University of Colorado Boulder. Other institutions are NYU, Arizona State, Caltech, Lehigh, The Francis Crick Institute, University of Pittsburgh, University of Hertfor…

FUNDING AGENCIES


Logo for Medical Research Council
Logo for National Science Foundation
Logo for Fonds de recherche Sante Quebec

 Odor2Action is supported by the Next Generation Networks for Neuroscience Program, also known as NeuroNex. As part of the BRAIN Initiative, NeuroNex International Networks involve strategic partnerships between the National Science Foundation (NSF), the UK Research and Innovation Medical Research Council (UKRI-MRC), and the Fonds de recherche en Santé du Québec (FRQS). Together, these agencies support our international research endeavors to generate a deeper understanding of brain function across species and revolutionize fields from medicine and artificial intelligence.