Gabriella R. Sterne

Gabriella R. Sterne, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Genetics and the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD). She holds joint appointments in both departments and leads the Sterne Lab, focused on understanding neural circuit mechanisms underlying feeding behaviors.

Dr. Sterne earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan (2016) and a B.A. in Biology from Whitman College (2010). Her research integrates experimental and computational approaches to study how neural circuits coordinate feeding motor programs, time feeding intervals, and store feeding-related memories using Drosophila as a model system.

Key research themes include:

• Feeding Motor Sequences: How circuits orchestrate rhythmic motor actions like proboscis extension.
• Feeding Microstructure: Neural coding strategies for timing feeding rhythms across timescales.
• Feeding Memories: Circuit mechanisms linking taste experiences to long-term behavioral adaptations.

Her lab collaborates extensively with neuroimaging and computational teams, contributing to projects like the Drosophila connectome mapping. Recent work includes computational brain models and neuroendocrine pathway discoveries influencing feeding behavior.

Lab Members include postdoctoral scholars, graduate students (e.g., Gladys Leitch studying hunger modulation), and undergraduates involved in neuroanatomy visualization and synaptic quantification projects. The lab is affiliated with the Biomedical Genetics and Genomics, Neurobiology & Anatomy, and Neuroscience Ph.D. programs.

Lab location: KMRB 2-9639, 601 Elmwood Ave, Rochester, NY 14642.