Contact Information

(267) 519-4895

Alan Gelperin

Member

Education

Ph.D., Biology; University of Pennsylvania

Research Summary

I study odor information processing and memory storage using biological, computational and electronic approaches. My lab studies biological olfaction using mammalian systems whose central odor processing networks reliably compute complex predictive relationships between odor stimuli and rewards. We record in vivo from mitral cells in the mouse olfactory bulb during odor discrimination and odor learning to identify learning-induced alterations in mitral cell activity. In vitro studies of a slice preparation of the olfactory bulb allow us to test biophysical models of mitral cell plasticity. Patch and optical recording methods are utilized to understand the role of oscillatory dynamics and neurogenesis in odor recognition and memory storage. Computational methods generate biophysically-based network models of the olfactory system to identify general design principles. With collaborators in electronic olfaction we work on developing new odor sensor arrays, sensor circuits and algorithms to develop a new generation of electronic olfactory systems able to solve hard problems like finding buried land mines or contribute to disease diagnosis.

Keywords

systems neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, learning and memory, olfactory information processing, neuronal biophysics, olfactometry, optical recording, elctronic olfaction, electronic chemosensors, neurophysiological methods, odor sensing for disease diagnosis, neuroethology

Recent Publications

Gelperin, A. & Ghatpande, A. (2009). Neural basis of olfactory perception. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1170, 277-285.

Ghatpande, A. S. & Gelperin, A. (2009). Presynaptic muscarinic receptors enhance glutamate release at the mitral/tufted to granule cell dendrodendritic synapse in the rat main olfactory bulb. Journal of Neurophysiology, 101, 2052-2061.

Gelperin, A. (2008). Neural computations with mammalian infochemicals. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 34, 928-942.

Gelperin, A. and Johnson, A. T. (2008). Nanotube-based gas sensors for clinical breath analysis. Journal of Breath Research. 2 (3) 037015 (6pp).

Lowe, G., Buerk, D. G., Ma, J., & Gelperin, A. (2008). Tonic and stimulus-evoked nitric oxide production in the mouse olfactory bulb. Neuroscience, 153, 842-850.

Watanabe, S., Kirino, Y., & Gelperin, A. (2008). Neural and molecular mechanisms of microcognition in Limax. Learning & Memory, 15, 633-642.

Gelperin, A., Hildebrand, J., & Eisner, T. (2007). Vincent Gaston Dethier. In Biographical Memoirs (pp. 79-95). National Academy of Sciences.

Koulakov, A., Gelperin, A., & Rinberg, D. (2007). Olfactory coding with all-or-nothing glomeruli. Journal of Neurophysiology, 98, 3134-3142.

Gelperin, A. (2006). Olfactory computations and network oscillations. Journal of Neuroscience 26, 1663-1668.

Goel, P. & Gelperin, A. (2006). A neuronal network for the logic of Limax learning. Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 21, 259-270.

Johnson, A. T. C., Stall, C., Chen, M., Khamis, S., Johnson, R., Klein, M. I. et al. (2006). DNA-decorated carbon nanotubes for chemical sensing. Semiconductor Science and Technology 21, S17-S21.

Rinberg, D., Koulakov, A., & Gelperin, A. (2006). Speed-accuracy tradeoff in olfaction. Neuron 51, 351-358.

Rinberg, D. & Gelperin, A. (2006). Olfactory neuronal dynamics in behaving animals. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology 17, 454-461.

Rinberg, D., Koulakov, A., & Gelperin, A. (2006). Sparse odor coding in awake behaving mice. Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 8857-8865.