Check It Out

Piali Sengupta

Professor of Biology
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Current research
I’m interested in how animals sense their environment, and how this affects behavior and development. My lab studies this issue using the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which has a small, well-defined nervous system that drives many behaviors. We seek to identify the genes, neurons and circuits that determine behavioral responses to cues such as chemicals and temperature, and we explore how past experience modifies these behaviors. Understanding these principles in a simple nervous system allows us to investigate related issues in the more complex nervous systems of higher animals.       

Favorite classroom experience
I taught a genetics class to nonscience majors in spring 2007. I enjoyed making the science underlying hot topics, such as genetic engineering and stem cells, understandable for an audience without much background in biology. My two favorite moments, though, were the collective and very loud gasps elicited by two slides: one showing green mice, the result of inserting a jellyfish gene, and another showing flies with legs growing out of their heads in place of antennae, due to a mutation in the Antennopedia gene.   

What makes Brandeis special
The combination of academic excellence and small size. The accomplishments of the faculty and students are equal to those at much larger universities. But the small size means that our classes are small, so no student is anonymous, and there is a lot of interaction between students and faculty.

Last book read for pleasure
"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.

Favorite world city to visit
Probably Tokyo. Something unexpected and exotic at every turn. And for the food.