Lisa Stowers is an American neuroscientist studying

pheromone A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

signaling and response. She is a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at

Scripps Research Scripps Research is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institute has over 170 laboratories employing 2,100 scientists, tec ...

Early life and education

Lisa was born Lisa Tanguay in Petaluma, California. Stowers completed her PhD at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 1997.

Career and research

Stowers became an associate professor at

in 2002. She initially had a joint appointment in the Cell Biology and Neuroscience departments and later became a part of the Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience departments. She gained tenure and was promoted to full professor in 2016. Stowers' research focuses on how

neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

s sense and respond to

s, especially the molecular pathways in mouse neurons that lead to predictable behaviors. She has made several discoveries connecting pheromone sensing and emotional and behavioral response in mice, including scent compounds that lead to fear, aggression, mating, or pup suckling.

Awards and honors

* 2004 Pew Biomedical Scholar

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stowers, Lisa Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women neuroscientists American neuroscientists Scripps Research faculty Harvard University alumni