Hernandez-Nunez Lab: Organism-wide circuits for brain-body interactions
Our Research
Animals, including humans, rely on sophisticated neural computations to integrate sensory information, make decisions, and orchestrate complex behaviors. At the same time, internal organs must coordinate their function rapidly and precisely to support the shifting metabolic demands that behavior and brain state require. Our research bridges these domains by developing novel whole-body optical physiology tools and computational frameworks that enable us to study the entire organism as a dynamical system. We combine these tools and frameworks with systems neuroscience approaches and modern genetics to elucidate the mechanisms that dynamically regulate internal organ physiology, behavior, and brain state.
Our Mission and Vision
Our Mission is to foster an inclusive and welcoming environment where scientists and engineers collaborate closely, supported by personalized mentorship. Together, we aim to uncover the foundational principles that govern organism-wide homeostasis.
Our Vision is to transform physiology and medicine by uncovering how seemingly distant components—such as intraorgan neurons and cognitive centers—interact through organism-wide brain-body circuits. By redefining our understanding of integrated physiological balance, we aim to reveal fundamental principles that connect diverse organ systems and ultimately inspire innovative approaches to health and disease.
Our Approach
We seek to understand how the brain and body communicate as an integrated network. By combining cutting-edge systems neuroscience, optical physiology, genetics, and AI, we study the circuits that mediate brain–body interactions through the lens of control theory, revealing principles that govern whole-organism function. We achieve this by leveraging the optical and genetic advantages of larval zebrafish to perform whole-body cellular physiology measurements and perturbations, and by developing computational and analytical models of neural circuits and organ physiology.