Dr. Leonardo Belluscio

2001 - Dr. Leonardo Belluscio - Visualizing Scent Networks in the Olfactory System Dr. Belluscio received a 2000 Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences.

Awardee Profile - Leonardo Belluscio
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Leonardo Belluscio
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Dr. Leonardo Belluscio

April 2001 - It has happened to everyone.
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Among them is Leonardo Belluscio, who is conducting research supported by a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences. He has helped pioneer a new method for actually watching the process of scent recognition as it happens.

Dr. Belluscio did his graduate work on the molecular basis of olfaction with Richard Axel, M.D., of Columbia University.
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"I wanted a more complete understanding of the olfactory system in order to better compare it to other sensory systems, and it was clear to me that molecular biology alone would not allow me to do this," Dr. Belluscio says. "I decided to combine molecular biology with physiology and imaging to allow me to ask more sophisticated questions."

To do that, Dr. Belluscio chose to pursue postdoctoral work with Lawrence Katz, Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Investigator at Duke University Medical Center.
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Dr. Belluscio began his work by creating a map of neural activity in the olfactory bulbs of mice. To do that he used a new technique that allows him to detect olfactory activity by measuring the shift in oxygen-carrying blood toward active nerve sites. Scientists know that blood flow is redirected to areas of intense activity in the brain, so they can correlate activity with blood flow. The technique is gaining acceptance in the olfactory field because it is relatively non-invasive for the animal and gives a comprehensive detailed picture of nerve impulses over the imaged area, Dr. Belluscio says.

He created maps of olfactory nerve activity when mice were presented with a series of odorous molecules called aldehydes, a class of compounds that are highly fragrant and often used in perfumes and other consumer products, and thus were a good choice as model scents for Dr. Belluscio's work. Thus he created some of the first visual maps of how the brain processes smells, something that has been done only indirectly in the past. His work appears on the cover of the March 15, 2001, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

In the paper, he describes how his visual maps correlated well with molecular studies over the last few years:
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"We think that the experience of smell can be influenced by environment and learning," says Belluscio. "Our future studies will focus on changes in the olfactory bulb with learning."

He plans to teach the mice in his studies to associate a specific smell with a reward and see how that combination of scent and memory changes the olfactory map - a first step in understanding the link between scent and memory.
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Questions for Dr. Leonardo Belluscio:
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Name: Leonardo Belluscio, Ph.D.
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Awardee Profile - Leonardo Belluscio

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Leonardo Belluscio, Ph.D.Postdoctoral Institution: Duke University Medical Center

[IMG]2001 - Dr. Leonardo BelluscioBurroughs Wellcome Fund: Dr. Leonardo Belluscio
...
Dr. Leonardo Belluscio

April 2001 - It has happened to everyone.
...
Among them is Leonardo Belluscio, who is conducting research supported by a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences.He has helped pioneer a new method for actually watching the process of scent recognition as it happens.

Dr. Belluscio did his graduate work on the molecular basis of olfaction with Richard Axel, M.D., of Columbia University.
...
"I wanted a more complete understanding of the olfactory system in order to better compare it to other sensory systems, and it was clear to me that molecular biology alone would not allow me to do this," Dr. Belluscio says."I decided to combine molecular biology with physiology and imaging to allow me to ask more sophisticated questions."

To do that, Dr. Belluscio chose to pursue postdoctoral work with Lawrence Katz, Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Investigator at Duke University Medical Center.
...
Dr. Belluscio began his work by creating a map of neural activity in the olfactory bulbs of mice.To do that he used a new technique that allows him to detect olfactory activity by measuring the shift in oxygen-carrying blood toward active nerve sites.Scientists know that blood flow is redirected to areas of intense activity in the brain, so they can correlate activity with blood flow.The technique is gaining acceptance in the olfactory field because it is relatively non-invasive for the animal and gives a comprehensive detailed picture of nerve impulses over the imaged area, Dr. Belluscio says.

He created maps of olfactory nerve activity when mice were presented with a series of odorous molecules called aldehydes, a class of compounds that are highly fragrant and often used in perfumes and other consumer products, and thus were a good choice as model scents for Dr. Belluscio's work.Thus he created some of the first visual maps of how the brain processes smells, something that has been done only indirectly in the past.His work appears on the cover of the March 15, 2001, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

In the paper, he describes how his visual maps correlated well with molecular studies over the last few years:
...
"We think that the experience of smell can be influenced by environment and learning," says Belluscio."Our future studies will focus on changes in the olfactory bulb with learning."

He plans to teach the mice in his studies to associate a specific smell with a reward and see how that combination of scent and memory changes the olfactory map - a first step in understanding the link between scent and memory.
...
Questions for Dr. Leonardo Belluscio:
...
Name: Leonardo Belluscio, Ph.D.

Profile: Leonardo Belluscio, Ph.D.