Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behaviour, The Rockefeller University 1230 York Avenue, Box 63 New York, New York 10065, USA. leslie@mail.rockefeller.edu
Where do animal behaviours come from and are they controlled by genes? This is the fundamental question posed by the field of neurogenetics. Pioneering work from the 1960s in Seymour Benzer's laboratory demonstrated for the first time that Drosophila melanogaster fruitflies could be mutated to obtain animals with insomnia, learning disabilities and homosexual courtship behaviours.