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 Birgit Vosshall (born July 5, 1965) is a famous American scientist who studies the brain and how living things sense the world. She is a neurobiologist, which means she studies the nervous system. Dr. Vosshall works at The Rockefeller University and is also a leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Dr. Vosshall is known for her amazing discoveries about how insects, especially mosquitoes, smell things. She found out how their "smell receptors" work. She also studies how humans smell and why different people smell things differently.
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Early Life and Discoveries
Leslie Vosshall was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1965. 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, from age 17 to 19, Leslie spent her summers working in a science lab. This experience was at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. She said it was a great way to learn what science is really like.
Education and Career Path
Dr. Vosshall went to Columbia University and earned her first degree in biochemistry in 1987. Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry of living things. Later, she earned her Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1993.
After that, she continued her research at Columbia University. She worked with a scientist named Richard Axel, who later won a Nobel Prize. In 2000, Dr. Vosshall became a professor at The Rockefeller University. She became a full professor in 2010.
Since 2016, she has been the director of the Kavli Neural Systems Institute. In 2022, she also became the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This shows how important her work is in the science world.
Amazing Research on Smell
Dr. Vosshall's lab studies how different creatures smell and what makes them choose certain foods. They work with fruit flies, mosquitoes, and even humans!
Mosquitoes and Human Smell
One of her main research areas is understanding why mosquitoes prefer to bite humans. She compares the genes of different mosquito types. This helps her find out which genes make mosquitoes look for humans and human blood.
Her team found that the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads diseases like yellow fever, dengue, and Zika fever, has a special gene. This gene helps it smell a compound called sulcatone, which is common in human body odor.
Dr. Vosshall's lab also discovered something called ORCO. This is a special part of a mosquito's smell system. It helps mosquitoes prefer humans over other animals. ORCO also makes them sensitive to insect repellents like DEET.
Human Olfaction Discoveries
Dr. Vosshall's research also looks at human smell. Her work has shown that humans can tell the difference between more than 1 trillion different smells! This is much more than scientists thought before. She also found that tiny differences in our genes can change how well we smell certain things.
Awards and Recognitions
Dr. Vosshall has received many important awards for her scientific work:
- 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)
