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Román Corfas

  • Assistant Professor of Instruction
  • Biology Instructional Office
  • Neuroscience
Profile image of Román Corfas
roman.corfas@austin.utexas.edu
NHB
3.356

Biography

After majoring in neuroscience at Oberlin College, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Leslie Vosshall at Rockefeller University for my Ph.D. In the Vosshall lab, I studied how mosquitoes use thermosensors and search strategies to 'heat-seek' towards warm-blooded host. Next, as a postdoc in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Dickinson at Caltech, I investigated neural and behavioral mechanisms of path integration and navigation in the fly, Drosophila melanogaster. During my time as a graduate and postdoctoral researcher, I became increasingly drawn to teaching and mentorship. 

Since joining the University of Texas at Austin in 2021, I have turned my attention entirely to neuroscience pedagogy. I am teaching introductory courses for neuroscience majors. In Neural Systems II, students learn about neuroanatomy, developmental neurobiology, neural mechanisms of memory, emotions, and other higher cognitive functions. Neural Systems III is a skills-based course, where students learn to code in Python to analyze datasets and practice scientific communication, literacy, and experimental design. Beyond the classroom, I am working with the Neuroscience Department to develop and redesign our undergraduate curriculum.

Publications

  • Behbahani AH, Palmer EH, Corfas RA, Dickinson MH. Drosophila re-zero their path integrator at the center of a fictive food patch. Current Biology 31, 4534-4546 (2021).

  • Corfas RA, Sharma T, Dickinson MH. Diverse food-sensing neurons trigger idiothetic local search in Drosophila. Current Biology 29, 1660-1668.e4 (2019).

  • Corfas RA and Vosshall LB. The cation channel TRPA1 tunes mosquito thermotaxis to host temperatures. eLife 4, e11750 (2015).

  • McMeniman CJ, Corfas RA, Matthews BJ, Ritchie SA, Vosshall LB. Multimodal Integration of Carbon Dioxide and Other Sensory Cues Drives Mosquito Attraction to Humans. Cell 156, 1060–1071 (2014).

  • Ross SE, Mardinly AR, McCord AE, Zurawski J, Cohen S, Jung C, Hu L, Mok SI, Shah A, Savner EM, Tolias C, Corfas R, Chen S, Inquimbert P, Xu Y, McInnes RR, Rice FL, Corfas G, Ma Q, Woolf CJ, Greenberg ME. Loss of inhibitory interneurons in the dorsal spinal cord and elevated itch in Bhlhb5 mutant mice. Neuron 65, 886–898 (2010).

Awards

  • Biology Instructional Office Teaching Award, 2025
  • Faculty Service Award, 2025
  • Teaching Excellence Award, 2023