Ivan De Araujo

Ivan De Araujo is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, along with Peter Dayan. He is known for his seminal investigations on sugar preference and on the reward functions of the gut-brain axis. After describing the taste-independent reward phenomenonde Araujo, I. E. et al. Food Reward in the Absence of Taste Receptor Signaling. Neuron (2008) doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.01.032, he pioneered studies linking the intestine to the brain dopamine systemTellez LA, Medina S, Han W, Ferreira JG, Ren X, Lam T, Schwartz GJ, de Araujo IE (2013) A gut lipid messenger links excess dietary fat to dopamine deficiency. Science 341:800-2. PMID: 23950538Tellez LA, Han W, Zhang X, Ferreira TL, Perez IO, Shammah-Lagnado SJ, van den Pol AN, de Araujo IE (2016) Separate circuitries encode the hedonic and nutritional values of sugar. Nature Neuroscience 19(3):465-70. PMID: 26807950. His laboratory also performed the founding studies on the reward function of the vagus nerveHan W, Tellez LA, Perkins MH, Perez IO, Qu T, Ferreira J, Ferreira TL, Quinn D, Liu ZW, Gao XB, Kaelberer MM, Bohórquez DV, Shammah-Lagnado SJ, de Lartigue G, de Araujo IE (2018) A Neural Circuit for Gut-Induced Reward. Cell 175:665–678 PMID: 30245012. Other fields covered by his investigations include a seminal paper on the neural circuitry of predatory huntingHan W, Tellez LA, Rangel MJ Jr, Motta SC, Zhang X, Perez IO, Canteras NS, Shammah-Lagnado SJ, van den Pol AN, de Araujo IE (2017) Integrated Control of Predatory Hunting by the Central Nucleus of the Amygdala. Cell 168(1-2):311-324. PMID: 28086095, a biological model for opportunistic eating.
==Education==
De Araujo studied Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Brasilia, followed by postgraduate studies in artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics. He was awarded the title of Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, under the supervision of Edmund T. Rolls.
==Career and research==
De Araujo’s doctoral thesis focused on cortical mechanisms linked to the pleasurable perceptions associated with taste and flavors. After his doctorate, he held a postdoctoral research position with Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University. He then took up an assistant professor position at the Pierce Laboratories at Yale University, where he was eventually appointed Professor of Psychiatry. Between 2018 and 2023, he was a Professor of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai Hospital New York. In May 2023, the Max Planck Society announced his appointment as a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen. 
In 2008, De Araujo and colleagues showed that taste-blind mice could form preferences for caloric sugars, and that their brains release the pleasure neurotransmitter dopamine during sugar consumption, despite absence of taste functionde Araujo, I. E. et al. Food Reward in the Absence of Taste Receptor Signaling. Neuron (2008) doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.01.032. This implies that sugar preference is a biological phenomenon by which sugar is preferred over artificial sweeteners. His group then engaged on a series of studies to identify the gut-brain reward axis. Ten years later, the research resulted in the identification of the vagus nerve as a key conductor of reward signals from the body to the brainHan W, Tellez LA, Perkins MH, Perez IO, Qu T, Ferreira J, Ferreira TL, Quinn D, Liu ZW, Gao XB, Kaelberer MM, Bohórquez DV, Shammah-Lagnado SJ, de Lartigue G, de Araujo IE (2018) A Neural Circuit for Gut-Induced Reward. Cell 175:665–678 PMID: 30245012. This provided a basis for understanding how our brains form preferences for calorically dense foods via unconscious processes. 
==Repercussion==
De Araujo’s research has attracted the attention of the general public, being featured in news outlets such as the Time Magazine, NPR, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC,Financial Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, New York Post, NBC News, LA Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail,RFI France, El Pais, La Nacion, The Boston Globe, Scientific American,The Scientist, Nature News, Science Magazine, Folha de São Paulo, and many others.
Category:University of Brasília alumni
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
Category:Jewish scientists
Category:Directors