QnAs with Liqun Luo.

To make us who we are, each of around 86 billion neurons has to find and connect with thousands of other neurons, forming the dense and complex network of the human brain. How is the precision of neuronal wiring achieved? Liqun Luo, a neurobiologist at Stanford University, investigates this question. Luo, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012, uses the olfactory system of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) to learn how neuronal circuits form. His Inaugural Article (1) reports the role of cellular growth factors and glial cells in shaping the specificity of neuronal wiring. Luo recently spoke to PNAS about his work.