Gary Borisy Annual Seminar

2026’s Speaker

Daniel A. Colón Ramos

Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Yale University

May 18, 2026

3:00 PM, reception to follow

Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, DeLuca Forum

The cell biology of energy metabolism shapes neuronal physiology and function in vivo

Summary: Neurons perform diverse functions that impose distinct energetic demands, but how energy-metabolic pathways are matched to these functions in vivo remains unknown. Here we show that two functionally divergent sister chemosensory neurons in C. elegans, ASEL and ASER, exhibit asymmetric glycolytic flux, with ASER exhibiting high and ASEL having low levels of glycolysis. Metabolic imaging, metabolic network modeling, and electrophysiology measurements reveal that ASER’s elevated glycolysis supports a hyperpolarized resting potential, low input resistance, and rapid repolarization that enable a distinct functional role compared to ASEL. Impairing glycolysis collapses these electrophysiological specializations without abolishing neuronal excitability, and selectively disrupts ASER’s calcium responses while leaving ASEL largely unaffected. These findings demonstrate that neuron-specific glycolytic programs shape core biophysical properties and are required for functional identity in vivo, establishing metabolism as an active determinant of neuronal physiology.

I chose this topic because Gary Borisy’s work helped establish a vision of cell biology as a dynamic, quantitative, and mechanistic science, one that drew insight from biochemistry and placed it in a cellular context. This lecture aims to honor that legacy by examining how metabolism, a field most often understood through biochemistry, is organized within cells to shape function in the intact animal.