Rachel Wilson is a professor of

neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Wilson's work integrates

electrophysiology Electrophysiology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''ēlektron'', "amber" ee the Electron#Etymology, etymology of "electron" , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , ''-logy, -logia'') is the branch of physiology that studies the electrical propertie ...

neuropharmacology Neuropharmacology is the study of how drugs affect function in the nervous system, and the neural mechanisms through which they influence behavior. There are two main branches of neuropharmacology: behavioral and molecular. Behavioral neuropharmac ...

molecular genetics Molecular genetics is a sub-field of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the ...

, functional

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

, and behavior to explore how

neural circuits A neural circuit is a population of neurons interconnected by synapses to carry out a specific function when activated. Neural circuits interconnect to one another to form large scale brain networks. Biological neural networks have inspired th ...

are organized to react and sense a complex environment.

Education and early career

Wilson was born in Kansas City, Missouri. She received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in chemistry from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1996 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in neuroscience from the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...

in 2001, where she worked in the laboratory of Roger Nicoll. There, she worked on what her peers called "the project of death," searching for the molecule in the brain that enabled neurons to communicate in reverse—known as

retrograde signaling Retrograde signaling in biology is the process where a signal travels backwards from a target source to its original source. For example, the nucleus of a cell is the original source for creating signaling proteins. During retrograde signaling, ins ...

—across synapses. She discovered that a molecule known as

endocannabinoid Cannabinoids () are several structural classes of compounds found in the cannabis plant primarily and most animal organisms (although insects lack such receptors) or as synthetic compounds. The most notable cannabinoid is the phytocannabinoid tet ...

s—which mimic the active ingredient in marijuana and naturally exist in the brain—were responsible for allowing post-synaptic neurons to communicate to their pre-synaptic counterparts. Using rats as a model organism, she found that these molecules support cognitive function in the

hippocampus The hippocampus (via Latin from Greek , ' seahorse') is a major component of the brain of humans and other vertebrates. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, ...

, the center of the brain that is involved in learning and memory formation. Wilson's hypothesis, based on the number of

cannabinoid receptors Cannabinoid receptors, located throughout the body, are part of the endocannabinoid system a class of cell membrane receptors in the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily. As is typical of G protein-coupled receptors, the cannabinoid recepto ...

in the hippocampus, is that these endocannabinoids help the brain create new memories and strengthen connections between neurons. Following her Ph.D., Wilson became a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, working in the laboratory of Gilles Laurent. There, she began working on ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many speci ...

'' (fruit flies) as a model organism, seeking to understand how neurons integrate information from their surroundings. She recorded electrical signals in the brain of these flies to understand how those signals corresponded to specific odors as

stimuli A stimulus is something that causes a physiological response. It may refer to: * Stimulation ** Stimulus (physiology), something external that influences an activity ** Stimulus (psychology), a concept in behaviorism and perception * Stimulus (eco ...

Research

In 2004, Wilson started her own laboratory and research program at

Awards

In 2007 Wilson won

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

and Eppendorf AG's Grand Prize in Neurobiology for her work on the olfactory function of fruit flies

Drosophila melanogaster ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the " vinegar fly" or "pomace fly". Starting with ...

, to understand how the brain recognizes odors from patterns of impulses from

olfactory receptor neuron An olfactory receptor neuron (ORN), also called an olfactory sensory neuron (OSN), is a sensory neuron within the olfactory system. Structure Humans have between 10 and 20 million olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). In vertebrates, ORNs are b ...

s. In 2008 she won a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

. In 2014, she won the inaugural national Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists, awarded by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wi ...

to "celebrate America’s most innovative and promising faculty-rank scientists and engineers." In 2012 she was made a full professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Neurobiology; she currently holds the Joseph B. Martin Professorship in Basic Research. In 2017, Wilson was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences for her contributions to

neurophysiology Neurophysiology is a branch of physiology and neuroscience that studies nervous system function rather than nervous system architecture. This area aids in the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological diseases. Historically, it has been dominated b ...

References

External links

Wilson Lab
at Harvard University {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Rachel MacArthur Fellows American women neuroscientists Harvard College alumni University of California, San Francisco alumni Harvard Medical School faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Scientists from Kansas City, Missouri Scientists from Missouri Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American women academics 21st-century American women scientists