Julian Meeks, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

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Julian Meeks started his path towards neurobiology as an undergraduate studying biomedical engineering (B.S. in BME, Saint Louis University, 2001). His interests turned to neurophysiology following an influential summer internship in the laboratory of Jeffrey Diamond, Ph.D. at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in 2000. He jumped head-first into neurophysiology research, and received a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Washington University in 2006, working in the laboratory of Steven Mennerick, Ph.D. His Ph.D. research focused on the important role of the axon initial segment in generating and maintaining neuronal action potential signaling during healthy and pathophysiological states.

Dr. Meeks' long-standing interests in neuronal computation were the focus led him to pursue postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Timothy Holy, Ph.D. In his postdoctoral research, Dr. Meeks developed ex vivo procedures for studying difficult-to-access circuits in the mouse brain.  He applied these procedures to study communication between neurons in the mouse accessory olfactory system (AOS), an olfactory pathway that strongly influences mouse social and reproductive behaviors, including territorial aggression, mating, maternal behavior, and predator avoidance. In his postdoc work, Dr. Meeks developed physiological methods that allowed him to determine how neurons in the AOS extract information from the complicated blends of olfactory cues that animals encounter every day.

Dr. Meeks joined the faculty at UT Southwestern in the Department of Neuroscience in 2012.  His laboratory continues to investigate mechanisms by which the AOS influences social/reproductive behaviors. The Meeks Laboratory has several areas of interest, including identification of new kinds of pheromones (within-species chemosignals) and kairomones (across-species chemosignals). In 2016, Wayne Doyle, a graduate student in the laboratory, discovered that bile acids in animal feces are a new class of AOS ligands. Other major research interests include experience-dependent social learning, neural circuit organization, and the role of interneurons in information processing.

Undergraduate

St Louis University (2001), Biomedical Engineering

Graduate School

Washington University (2006), Cognition and Neuroscience

• Bile acids
• Electrophysiology
• Innate behaviors
• Interneuron functional diversity
• Mechanisms of information transformation in neural circuits
• Mechanisms of sensory processing in mammalian olfaction
• Neural control of innate social/reproductive behaviors
• Optical Imaging
• Reciprocal synapses
• Social learning

Featured Publications

Excreted steroids in vertebrate social communication.

Doyle WI, Meeks JP J. Neurosci. 2018 Mar

Experience-dependent plasticity in accessory olfactory bulb interneurons following male-male social interaction.

Cansler HL, Maksimova MA, Meeks JP J. Neurosci. 2017 Jun

Faecal bile acids are natural ligands of the mouse accessory olfactory system.

Doyle WI, Dinser JA, Cansler HL, Zhang X, Dinh DD, Browder NS, Riddington IM, Meeks JP Nat Commun 2016 7 11936

Functional organization of glomerular maps in the mouse accessory olfactory bulb.

Hammen GF, Turaga D, Holy TE, Meeks JP Nat. Neurosci. 2014 Jun

Representation and transformation of sensory information in the mouse accessory olfactory system.

Meeks JP, Arnson HA, Holy TE Nat. Neurosci. 2010 Jun 13 6 723-30

Heterogeneous effects of noradrenaline on spontaneous and stimulus-driven activity in the male accessory olfactory bulb.

Doyle WI, Meeks JP J. Neurophysiol. 2017 Jan jn.00871.2016

Odorant Responses and Courtship Behaviors Influenced by at4 Neurons in Drosophila.

Pitts S, Pelser E, Meeks J, Smith D PLoS ONE 2016 11 9 e0162761

Ex vivo preparations of the intact vomeronasal organ and accessory olfactory bulb.

Doyle WI, Hammen GF, Meeks JP J Vis Exp 2014 90

Electrical Recordings from the Accessory Olfactory Bulb in VNO-AOB Ex Vivo Preparations.

Meeks JP, Holy TE Methods Mol. Biol. 2013 1068 237-46

An ex vivo preparation of the intact mouse vomeronasal organ and accessory olfactory bulb.

Meeks JP, Holy TE J. Neurosci. Methods 2009 Mar 177 2 440-7

• K99/R00 Pathways to Independence Award (NIDCD/NIH)
  (2011)
• James L. O'Leary Prize for Research in Neuroscience
  (2010)
• Rulth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship (NIDCD/NIH)
  (2009)
• W.M. Keck Foundation Fellowship in Molecular Medicine
  (2008)
• Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Fellow
  (2007)
• Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship (NINDS/NIH)
  (2004)
• NIH Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship Program
  (2000)

• Association for Chemoreception Sciences (2010-2012)
• Society for Neuroscience (2002-2012)