Dr. Anita Devineni
Postdoctoral Fellow The Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University
PhD in Neuroscience University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Anita Devineni first became entranced by the brain not in biology class but on spring break. She was in high school at the time, and while she felt drawn to math and theoretical science, she thought biology was boring – just labeling the parts of a cell or memorizing the distinguishing features of mammals. That fateful spring break, Anita was at the beach without a book to read, and her friend had an extra: Genome by Matt Ridley. Anita devoured the book, blown away by the idea that genes could influence personality and behavior. “I’d never thought about how there is DNA inside of me that might contribute to making me the person that I am,” she remembers. While over time Anita has come to appreciate some shortcomings of the studies described in Genome, the book undoubtedly influenced her career trajectory. It sparked an interest in the links between genetics and behavior, a fascination that eventually led her to neuroscience.
When she got to Stanford University as an undergraduate, Anita – an avid Star Trek fan – checked to see if there was an astronomy major, thinking perhaps she could end up working at NASA. There wasn’t. So, remembering the thrill of Genome, Anita chose a biology major, planning to focus on genetics. Another pivotal moment came during her Introductory Biology class, taught by esteemed neuroscientist Dr. Robert Sapolsky. Sapolsky introduced the class to Hubel and Wiesel’s classic experiments recording electrical activity from the cat brain, and he built their discoveries into a mesmerizing story about how neural activity underlies our perception of the world. Sitting in that class, Anita suddenly realized that neural activity and neuronal circuitry were at the heart of why Genome had fascinated her – they were the mechanisms by which genes could influence behavior. With that, she decided to focus on neuroscience. She went on to work in Dr. Liqun Luo’s lab studying neuronal development, an experience that solidified her interest in the field and sparked in her a love for research.
Anita followed that passion to a PhD program at the University of California, San Francisco where she joined the lab of Dr. Ulrike Heberlein to investigate addiction in fruit flies. Anita discovered that fruit flies voluntarily consume alcohol and exhibit some aspects of addictive behavior; the flies consume more and more alcohol over time and after a period of withdrawal exhibit binging tendencies. In addition to her scientific findings, Anita also discovered an important role model in Ulrike. Earlier in her career, Ulrike had boldly shifted the focus of her lab despite being told her plan to study intoxicated fruit flies sounded crazy. She had persisted and succeeded, defying the doubts others expressed. Anita found Ulrike’s story deeply inspiring and hopes to channel some of the same fearlessness as she embarks on her own, independent scientific career.
After completing her doctorate, Anita left California for New York, joining Dr. Richard Axel’s lab at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. As a postdoctoral fellow, Anita first began looking at the interaction between taste and smell, staying with her favorite model organism – the fruit fly. Despite the fact that most of the Axel lab focuses on olfaction, Anita eventually gravitated towards fundamental questions about taste. She was interested in how motivational states might affect how taste is processed in the brain, and how this manifests in behavior. This interrogation led Anita to the discovery that hungry flies are attracted to acetic acid (a vinegar taste) but are averse to the same stimulus when well-fed. Given that some consider taste as a simple sense compared to vision or olfaction, Anita’s finding that hunger could switch the valence of a taste stimulus was particularly surprising. Her work illuminates some of the gaping holes that still remain in what we understand about how taste is processed in the brain.
While Anita ultimately made exciting and significant discoveries during her postdoc, the journey was not without challenges. At one difficult stretch of the road, Anita was feeling particularly bogged down with a project that had stalled. It was then that she started her blog, Brains Explained. Writing about neuroscience reinvigorated her passion for the subject, and even when her projects picked up again, she continued blogging. “It’s really exciting,” Anita says, “when you can successfully transfer enthusiasm to another person, and they tell you that now they think the brain is really interesting!” This is the same motivation that drives her love for teaching. During her postdoc, Anita taught neuroscience and genetics as an adjunct instructor at the City College of New York, and she hopes to find a faculty position in which she can continue to teach and mentor students.
As she sets out to find that faculty position, Anita has both experimental and mentorship goals for her future lab. She will continue to study taste in fruit flies, homing in on the neural circuitry underlying taste perception. She is particularly excited to attack these questions using the cutting-edge technology now available for work in flies, including machine learning-based behavioral tracking and the ability to record and manipulate the activity of single neurons in the fly brain. Anita is also passionate about making the lab a welcoming, inclusive, happy environment for her future trainees. She recognizes that each trainee might have different goals, and she hopes to provide personalized mentorship to help them achieve those dreams. And perhaps somewhere on a shelf in her future office there will be a copy of Genome, the beach read that first set her on the path to neuroscience.
Listen to Nancy’s full interview with Anita on June 15th, 2020 below or wherever you get your podcasts!
