Scripps Research Affiliate
Department of Neuroscience
Florida Campus
Laboratory Website
wja@scripps.edu
(561) 228-2956
Faculty, Graduate Program
Over a century of research on the fruit fly has resulted in profound discoveries in basic cellular processes, and has enabled the use of Drosophila as a model for human disease and drug discovery. Our laboratory uses diverse tools in chemistry and biology to dissect genetic pathways that are involved in aging and behavior. We are currently involved in several major directions:
B.S., Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1998
Ph.D., Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, 2004
2011-2015 Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award
2010 Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging
2008-2013 NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)
2007 DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics
2005-2006 John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
2004 Glenn Foundation/American Federation for Aging Research Scholarship
1998-2001 DOD National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship
1998 Erich O. and Elly M. Saegebarth Prize in Chemistry
1998 Waldo Semon Undergraduate Research Award 1997-1998 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship
Obadia B, Güvener ZT, Zhang V, Ceja-Navarro JA, Brodie EL, Ja WW, Ludington WB. Probabilistic invasion underlies natural gut microbiome stability. Curr. Biol. 27, 1999-2006 (2017).
Park JH, Carvalho GB, Murphy KR, Ehrlich MR, Ja WW. Sucralose suppresses food intake. Cell Metab. 25, 484-5 (2017).
Murphy KR, Deshpande SA, Yurgel ME, Quinn JP, Weissbach JL, Keene AC, Dawson-Scully K, Huber R, Tomchik SM, Ja WW. Postprandial sleep mechanics in Drosophila. Elife 5, e19334 (2016).
Yamada R, Deshpande SA, Bruce KD, Mak EM, Ja WW. Microbes promote amino acid harvest to rescue undernutrition in Drosophila. Cell Rep. 10, 865-72 (2015).
Deshpande SA, Carvalho GB, Amador A, Phillips AM, Hoxha S, Lizotte KJ, Ja WW. Quantifying Drosophila food intake: comparative analysis of current methodology. Nat. Methods 11, 535-40 (2014).
Metabolism: feeding fruit flies
'Best practices' nutrition measurement for researchers
Want to Fix Science's Replication Crisis? Then Replicate
Protein, salt drive post-meal sleepiness
"Food Coma" Phenomenon Studied In Fruit Flies
Microbes prevent malnutrition in fruit flies--and maybe humans, too