Olfaction

Stephen Ferguson, first-author of a new paper with his postdoctoral advisor, Laurence Zwiebel, along with two undergraduates associated with the lab, Isaac Bakis and Nicholas Edwards, confirmed the existence of a specialized soldier caste within an ant species. Read More

A team of biologists report a major advance in deciphering the molecular genetics underlying the ant's high-definition sense of smell, an ability that underpins their highly complex society. Read More

Vanderbilt biologists have discovered that mosquito sperm have a “sense of smell” and that some of same chemicals that the mosquito can smell cause the sperm to swim harder. Read More

Neuroscientist Kenneth Catania has resolved a long-standing scientific debate by showing that the common mole can smell in stereo. Read More

After more than a decade spent successfully decoding the malaria mosquito’s sense of smell, the Zwiebel Lab has added ant olfaction to its research repertoire and has just received a major grant to pursue this new avenue for the next four years. Read More

Last week when the Nashville Scene’s annual Innovations Issue hit the newsstands, three of its ten “forward-thinking ideas that are pushing Nashville – and the world – into the future” came from Vanderbilt. The three campus projects that impressed the Scene editors were: Digging for Drugs:… Read More