Affiliations
Postdoctoral Fellow, Monell Chemical Senses Center
Education
Ph.D., Neuroscience, University College Cork (Ireland)
Laboratory Of
Dr. Guillaume de Lartigue
Research Summary
Feeding is among the most robustly circadian-regulated behaviors. Beyond what we eat, when we eat is a critical determinant of metabolic health. My research seeks to uncover how peripheral signals shape circadian oscillations of feeding and how disruption of these rhythms contributes to metabolic disease.
A growing body of evidence shows the gut microbiota as an important source of rhythmic signals, and I am particularly interested in how these microbial signals interact with central circuits to regulate physiology and behavior. By integrating approaches to manipulate vagal sensory neurons with multi-omics datasets, I aim to identify microbially derived signals that engage these neurons to influence feeding behavior.
Keywords
feeding, gut-brain axis, circadian rhythms, obesity, neuroscience, bioinformatics
Representative Publications
Tofani, G. S. S., Leigh, S.-J., Gheorghe, C. E., Bastiaanssen, T. F. S., Wilmes, L., Sen, P., Clarke, G., & Cryan, J. F. (2025). Gut microbiota regulates stress responsivity via the circadian system. Cell Metabolism, 37(1), 138–153.
Tofani, G. S. S., Clarke, G., & Cryan, J. F. (2025). I “Gut” Rhythm: The microbiota as a modulator of the stress response and circadian rhythms. The FEBS Journal, 292(6), 1454–1479.
Gheorghe, C. E., Leigh, S.-J., Tofani, G. S. S., Bastiaanssen, T. F. S., Lyte, J. M., Gardellin, E., Govindan, A., Strain, C., Martinez-Herrero, S., Goodson, M. S., & others. (2024). The microbiota drives diurnal rhythms in tryptophan metabolism in the stressed gut. Cell Reports, 43(4).
