"Neurobiology and evolution of sex & violence"

David Anderson studies the neural circuits underlying innate behaviors that are associated with emotional states, including defensive behaviors and inter-male aggression. His work employs both mice and the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster as model organisms, and incorporates optogenetics, pharmacogenetics, electrophysiology, in vivo imaging and in collaboration with Prof. Pietro Perona, quantitative behavior analysis using machine vision-based approaches. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007.