![Steve Flavell stands near a window](/sites/default/files/styles/hero_1x_wide/public/Flavell_website_photo.jpg?itok=ICk98hWt)
Flavell uses Caenorhabditis elegans worms to examine how neuromodulators coordinate activity in neural circuits to generate locomotion behaviors linked to the feeding or satiety states of an animal. His long-term goal is to understand how neural circuits generate sustained behavioral states, and how physiological and environmental information is integrated into these circuits. Gaining a mechanistic understanding of how these circuits function will be essential to decipher the neural bases of sleep and mood disorders.