I received my PhD from the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland in the areas of insect chemical ecology, sensory physiology and behavior. Then I had a brief stint of a year and half at the Free University in Berlin, Germany, working with Marien de Bruyne in Randolf Menzel’s group. I studied the plasticity of olfactory coding in Drosophila. Between 2005 and 2011 I worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Walter Leal at the University of California-Davis where I studied insect olfaction from many perspectives.

My scientific interests broadly include: What molecular and cellular elements are involved in detection and discrimination of olfactory landscape that insects are surrounded with? How the rich and diverse chemical landscape is coded by a limited number of olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs)?  How selective forces shape the repertoire and function of olfactory receptors (ORs) in closely related, and especially sympatrically evolving insects species.

Laboratory

Vist the Dr. Zain Syed Laboratory page for more information about current projects.