Introduction

The Tong lab, March 2021

The Tong Laboratory has two primary research foci—how peripheral and intracellular metabolic signals alter hypothalamic neuronal activity, and how hypothalamic neural activity correlates with observed behavior. We use a wide variety of techniques to advance knowledge in these fields, such as optogenetics, chemogenetics, advanced pharmacology, confocal microscopy, behavioral analysis, fiber photometry of calcium-dependent fluorescence, lipidomics, etc. Put another way, we use multi-level analysis at the molecular, cellular, neurocircuit, and behavioral level to explore the function of hypothalamic nuclei. Our ultimate goal is to advance the basic science of hunger and satiety, providing a mechanistic platform with which to identify the true etiologies of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes mellitus.