Leslie B. Vosshall facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Leslie B. Vosshall
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Leslie Vosshall in 2010
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| Born | July 5, 1965 Lausanne, Switzerland
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Columbia College of Columbia University |
| Known for | insect olfaction |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | The Rockefeller University |
| Doctoral advisor | Michael W. Young |
| Other academic advisors | Richard Axel |
Leslie Vosshall, born on July 5, 1965, is an American scientist who studies the brain and how it controls behavior. She works at The Rockefeller University and is a top scientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). In 2022, she became a very important leader at HHMI, helping to guide their scientific research. She also leads the Kavli Neural Systems Institute at her university.
Dr. Vosshall is famous for her work on the sense of smell, especially in insects. She discovered how insects, like mosquitoes, use their sense of smell to find things. She also studies how humans smell. Her research helps us understand why different people smell things in different ways.
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Early Life and First Steps in Science
Leslie Vosshall was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. She spent most of her early childhood there. When she was 8 years old, her family moved to New Jersey in the United States.
When she was a teenager, Leslie spent her summers working in a science lab. This lab was at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole. She said this experience was an amazing way to learn what it's like to be a scientist.
Education and Career Path
Dr. Vosshall went to Columbia University and earned her first degree in Biochemistry in 1987. She then continued her studies at Rockefeller University, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1993.
After that, she worked as a researcher at Columbia University. She worked with a scientist named Richard Axel, who later won a Nobel Prize. In 2000, she became a professor at The Rockefeller University. She was promoted several times and now leads her own laboratory there. She also became the director of the Kavli Neural Systems Institute in 2016.
Understanding the Sense of Smell
Dr. Vosshall's lab studies how different living things smell and how they find food. They study fruit flies, mosquitoes, and humans.
Mosquitoes and Human Scent
One important part of her research is understanding mosquitoes. Mosquitoes can spread serious diseases like yellow fever, dengue, and Zika. Dr. Vosshall and her team study how mosquitoes find humans. They compare the genes that help mosquitoes find hosts and blood.
They found that a specific mosquito, Aedes aegypti, has a special gene. This gene helps it smell a chemical called sulcatone, which is common in human body odor. They also discovered another important gene called ORCO. This gene helps mosquitoes prefer humans over other animals. It also makes them sensitive to insect repellents like DEET.
Human Sense of Smell
Dr. Vosshall also studies how humans smell. Her research has shown that humans can tell the difference between more than a trillion different smells! She has also found that tiny differences in our genes can change how well we smell certain odors. This helps explain why some smells are strong to one person but barely noticeable to another.
Awards and Special Recognition
Dr. Vosshall has received many awards for her important scientific work. Some of these include:
- Beckman Young Investigator Award (2001)
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2002)
- Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists (2007)
- She became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 2008.
- Dickson Prize in Medicine (2024)
