Office Address: Gilmer 415
Lab: 434 243-6794

Education

B.S., University College, Cork, Ireland, 1985
Ph.D., University of Utah, 1991

Research Interests

The research in my lab is focused on the basic principles of how the brain develops and how this knowledge can be applied to the understanding of disease. My background and training are very broad. I studied bacteriophage genetics as a graduate student, evolution and developmental neurobiology as a postdoc and more general neurobiology now as a faculty member. My lab spent about 10 years focusing on the function of the serotonergic system, using insects and mice as a model. More recently, in collaboration with Janelia, my work has helped develop and use large scale circuit maps in the fruit fly. Over the last few years we have begun to use high resolution maps to understand the larval visual system, more specifically how the system becomes plastic at a certain stage in development. We have leveraged this trait to begin to understand the signals that can switch on plasticity in a mature circuit. 

For more information about research interests, visit my lab website.

Representative Publications

Williamson M, Mitchell A, Condron B. Birth temperature followed by a visual critical period determines cooperative group membership. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2021 Nov;207(6):739-746. PubMed PMID: 34611741.

Dombrovski M, Kuhar R, Mitchell A, Shelton H, Condron B. Cooperative foraging during larval stage affects fitness in Drosophila. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2020 Sep;206(5):743-755. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7392940.

Dombrovski M, Kim A, Poussard L, Vaccari A, Acton S, Spillman E, Condron B, Yuan Q. A Plastic Visual Pathway Regulates Cooperative Behavior in Drosophila Larvae. Curr Biol. 2019 Jun 3;29(11):1866-1876.e5. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6615885.

Dombrovski M, Poussard L, Moalem K, Kmecova L, Hogan N, Schott E, Vaccari A, Acton S, Condron B. Cooperative Behavior Emerges among Drosophila Larvae. Curr Biol. 2017 Sep 25;27(18):2821-2826.e2. PubMed PMID: 28918946.

Dombrovski M, Condron B. Critical periods shaping the social brain: A perspective from Drosophila. Bioessays. 2021 Jan;43(1):e2000246. PubMed PMID: 33215730.