Research Summary
Dr. Potter’s research focuses on how sensory information from the external environment is received, processed and interpreted by the brain. His team is interested in how neurons and circuits function in the brain to achieve a common goal (olfaction). They also develop, use and build molecular and genetic tools that allow them to directly alter neuronal functions in a living organism. They then determine how their neuronal manipulations altered the behavior of an animal.
The research in Dr. Potter’s lab is focused primarily on the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster and the mosquito Anopheles gambiae. His team developed the "Q-system," a repressible binary expression system, that allows for investigating neuronal populations. They use this system to label and manipulate small populations of neurons and assay their effects on olfactory behaviors.
More information can be found on Dr. Potter's lab page (http://potterlab.johnshopkins.edu/).
Lab
Lab Website: Christopher Potter Lab
Selected Publications
View all on PubMed
Chin SG, Maguire SE, Huoviala P, Jefferis GSXE, Potter CJ (2018) Olfactory Neurons and Brain Centers Directing Oviposition Decisions in Drosophila. Cell Reports 24, 1667-1678
Riabinina, O, Task, D, Marr, E, Lin, C-C, Alford R, O'Brochta, DA, Potter, CJ (2016) Organization of Olfactory Centers in the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Nature Communications 7, 1–12.
Lin, C-C, Potter, CJ (2016) Editing Transgenic DNA Components by Inducible Gene Replacement in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 203(4) 1613-1628; DOI: 10.1534/genetics.116.191783;
Lin, C-C., Prokop-Prigge, KA, Preti, G and Potter CJ (2015) Food odors trigger Drosophila males to deposit a pheromone that guides aggregation and female oviposition decisions. eLife, Full-text Article.
Riabinina, O., Luginbuhl, D., Marr, E., Liu, S., Wu, M.N., Luo, L., and Potter, C.J (2015) Improved and expanded Q-system reagents for genetic manipulations. Nature Methods, 12:219-222.
