Why do we feel sick ?
Feeling sick is not simply a consequence of inflammation. The brain senses changes in immune activity and coordinates the behavioral and physiological responses that accompany illness, including fever, fatigue, appetite loss, pain, sleep disruption, and changes in social behavior. The Osterhout Lab studies how the immune system and brain communicate to create these coordinated responses and how this communication changes during infection and disease.
We study how the brain interprets immune activity and shapes the body’s response to illness
We combine quantitative behavioral analyses, circuit dissection approaches, and single-cell and spatial transcriptomics to identify the cells, signals, and circuits that translate immune activity into changes in brain function and behavior.
Our community
Located in Salt Lake City, the Osterhout Lab is part of the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. We are embedded in a vibrant, collaborative neuroscience community and affiliated with the university’s Neuroscience and Bioscience PhD programs.
Lab members also contribute to scientific, professional, and outreach initiatives across campus and the greater Salt Lake Valley, including the Committee for Respect, Unity and Engagement (CRUE), Utah Women in Neuroscience (WiN), the Neurobiology Postdoctoral Group, the University of Utah Postdoctoral Association, the local SACNAS chapter and Brain Awareness Week.
News
8/12/25
Jessica was selected as a
2025 Pew Biomedical Scholar
5/1/25
Sophia Andreadis joins the lab!
Sophia is a rising second-year graduate student interested in sex differences in sickness. Welcome!
4/8/25
Hailee Walker recognized by the National Science Foundation with an Honorable Mention
11/26/24
Sam Hedges selected for the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP)
7/1/24
Osterhout Lab awarded the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship
Press
Vitae 2025: The Neurobiology of Sickness
Jessica interviewed for Stories of Women in Neuro (WiN)
Stories of WiN features profiles of women in neuroscience.
Your brain could be controlling how you get sick
A news feature in Nature describes how scientists are deciphering communication in the brain during immune responses, hoping to find treatments for a range of diseases
Open Box Science
See Jessica present her work on the generation of fever and sickness behaviors on Open Box Science!
Brain Explained
Jessica featured on the Brain Explained podcast