John Campbell is an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia, where his lab is conducting basic science research into the neural circuits controlling appetite, digestion, and metabolism. John received a B.S. in Biological Psychology from the College of William and Mary, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Medicine, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Bradford Lowell, M.D., Ph.D., at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His research leverages the molecular diversity of neurons to systematically identify neuronal subtypes and their marker genes in functionally-relevant brain regions and to generate hypotheses about each subtype’s physiological role. Then using the marker genes to genetically access each neuronal subtype of interest, his lab maps, monitors and manipulates the activity of specific subtypes to reveal their synaptic circuitry and physiological function. This approach is uncovering the specific roles of each neuronal population in energy balance and yielding new molecular targets for treating obesity and other metabolic diseases. He is currently funded by an American Diabetes Association Pathway to Stop Diabetes award (Principal Investigator) and the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Co-investigator).