Campbell Lab
Principal Investigator: John Nelson Campbell
Institution: University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Accepting PhD Students
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY Identifying synaptically connected neurons is a fundamental challenge in neuroscience, particularly within the hypothalamus - a brain region that orchestrates energy balance and other homeostatic processes through intricate and largely unknown neural circuits. Key among these circuits are AgRP (Agouti-related peptide) neurons and POMC (pro-opiomelanocortin) neurons of the arcuate nucleus, which oppositely control appetite and metabolism to determine body weight. While these two populations of melanocortin neurons are well characterized, the molecular identities, synaptic organization, and functional properties of their afferent neurons remain almost entirely unknown. To address this critical gap, we developed RAMPANT (Rabies Afferent Mapping by Poly-A Nuclear Transcriptomics), a novel technique that leverages monosynaptic rabies tracing with single-cell and spatial transcriptomics. Our preliminary data identified many dozens of previously uncharacterized and molecularly distinct subtypes of afferents to melanocortin neurons, including overlapping subtypes that may reciprocally control AgRP and POMC activity. Notably, we also discovered that POMC neurons directly inh…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R01DK147947-01: Unraveling Neural Circuits for Body Weight Control with Molecular Connectomics (2026)
- 1R01HL188399-01: Unraveling Cardiovagal Circuits for Heart Rate with Molecular Connectomics (2026)
- 5R01HL153916-05: Molecular and Functional Taxonomy of Cardiovagal Neurons (2025)
- 5R01HL153916-04: Molecular and Functional Taxonomy of Cardiovagal Neurons (2024)
- 3R01HL153916-04S1: Molecular and Functional Taxonomy of Cardiovagal Neurons (2024)
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