Aref Zarin

Aref Zarin is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University, specializing in neuroscience and developmental biology. He joined the Department in 2020 following postdoctoral research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, focusing on Drosophila larval neural circuits. His work integrates genetic, optogenetic, and electrophysiological tools to study how neural circuits generate diverse motor behaviors and maintain their structure.

Education: Ph.D. in Neuroscience/Genetics from Trinity College Dublin (2013). Postdoctoral training at HHMI, investigating multifunctional circuits in Drosophila larvae.

Research focuses on: (1) Neural circuit architecture and function in Drosophila, (2) Developmental mechanisms linking neurogenesis to circuit formation, (3) Optogenetic interrogation of behavior-specific motor patterns. Key innovations include mapping larval motor connectomes and dissecting transcriptional codes regulating axon guidance.

Publications highlight advancements in understanding larval locomotion circuits, including premotor microcircuit design, neuromuscular coordination, and circuit plasticity. Recent work explores how cholinergic signaling and nAChR subunits drive escape behaviors, with implications for understanding general principles of neural circuit operation.

Laboratory activities include maintaining a lab website with research protocols and hosting collaborations on Drosophila neurobiology. Current projects investigate circuit robustness to embryonic perturbations and transcription factor roles in connectivity.