The behavior team comprises versatile staff with several years of experience with fly work and high-throughput quantitative behavioral assays. These assays test various fly behaviors, such as locomotion, phototaxis, optomotor responses, courtship, or sleep. They were largely developed within the Fly Olympiad team project (2009-2012), which screened ~2,500 Generation 1 GAL4 driver lines for phenotypes after the silencing or activation of neurons. The assays and techniques remain an important component of Janelia science, both in new team projects and Janelia laboratories. They are now used to interrogate driver lines that target smaller sets of neurons or single neurons, such as Split-GAL4 lines driving expression in descending interneurons. The team works closely with the Fly Facility and the Scientific Computing Software teams to achieve a streamlined execution of all projects.
PTR staff is also available to perform behavior assays in other animal models (e.g., bumble bees or zebrafish) in collaboration with individual labs.
Open Positions
We are currently seeking new team members with interest in bioimage annotations, imaging, or animal behavior experiments.