George Mountoufaris

George is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he recently launched his independent research group after receiving an Endowed Scholar Award. His lab develops novel approaches to study the molecular and circuit mechanisms underlying long-lasting internal states in mammals, in both normal and pathological conditions. George completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University in Tom Maniatis' lab, where he used the mammalian olfactory system to explore how protocadherin diversity contributes to neuronal wiring. Prior to his Ph.D, he trained at UCSF with Stavros Lomvardas, uncovering epigenetic mechanisms regulating olfactory receptor gene expression, and as an undergraduate at the University of Crete with Nektarios Tavernarakis, studying aging in C. elegans. He carried out postdoctoral research as a Helen Hay Whitney and Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Fellow in David Anderson's lab at Caltech, identifying genetic programs that govern persistence and intensity in affective states.