Thomas R. Clandinin

Clandinin's work has made critical contributions to two fundamental issues in neuroscience, using the fruit fly visual system to model biological processes found in many animals.  First, in the context of development, Dr. Clandinin's work unraveled the molecular mechanisms underpinning how quantitative differences in the activities of a small number of adhesion molecules can specify a complex pattern of synaptic connections.  Second, in the context of systems neuroscience, Dr. Clandinin's work unraveled the circuit and algorithmic basis for visual motion detection in flies, and demonstrated that the algorithm used in flies is fundamentally similar to that used in humans.