Throughout her career, Dr. Devineni has been driven by a desire to explain how the brain produces behavior at the level of genes, cells, and neural circuits. As an undergraduate at Stanford she investigated this question from a developmental perspective, studying how genetic programs regulate the wiring of neural circuits in Drosophila. During her Ph.D. at UCSF, she recognized that the same molecular and genetic approaches could be applied to study neural circuits and behavior. Working with Dr. Ulrike Heberlein, she established a new paradigm for studying addiction-like behavior in flies and uncovered genetic and neural mechanisms regulating behavioral responses to alcohol. As a postdoc in Dr. Richard Axel’s lab at Columbia, Dr. Devineni began studying the Drosophila taste system as a model to investigate sensory processing and modulation. Her work revealed new principles in how the brain represents taste and transforms it into behavior (summary here; major papers in eLife and Current Biology).

In her lab at Emory, Dr. Devineni’s goal is to use the fly taste system to understand general principles by which neural circuits integrate internal and external cues and transform them into a flexible set of behaviors. The lab combines a broad range of approaches, from molecular and cellular studies to optogenetics, functional imaging, connectomics, behavior, and computational modeling. Learn more about the lab’s research here and see our latest publications here.

In addition to research, Dr. Devineni strongly values teaching, mentoring, outreach, and science communication. She teaches undergraduate courses in the Biology department (Neurogenetics, Introduction to Neurobiology, and 2 lectures in Computational Neuroscience) and contributes to graduate courses (IBS526 and IBS560). She is also passionate about promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in academia and improving the training environment for students and postdocs. At Columbia she helped form the Zuckerman Institute Trainee Advisory Committee (ZTAC), a group dedicated to promoting the scientific training, professional development, and general welfare of students and postdocs. At Emory she is trying to promote equity and inclusion as a member of the Biology DEI committee and Neuroscience PhD admissions committee .

In her free time, Dr. Devineni enjoys (ultra)running, hiking and camping, creating silly bingo cards, and convincing people that fruit flies are cute.

Profile by Stories of WiN

Profile by Scientist on the Subway

“The Science Life” cartoon featuring Dr. Devineni, by the Zuckerman Institute

Dr. Devineni’s blog (not frequently updated)

Dr. Devineni Twitter

Recording of Dr. Devineni’s 15 minute talk for Neuromatch conference, October 2020