{{short description|American neuroscientist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Mala Murthy | image = | image_size = 275px | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1975}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | known_for = | alma_mater = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]<br/>[[Stanford University]] | doctoral_advisor = [[Thomas Schwarz]]<br/> [[Richard Scheller]] | doctoral_students = | work_institution = [[California Institute of Technology]]<br/>[[Princeton University]] | footnotes = | website = https://mala-murthy.squarespace.com }}
'''Mala Murthy''' is an American neuroscientist who serves as the director of the [[Princeton Neuroscience Institute]], and she is the Karol and Marnie Marcin '96 Professor of Neuroscience at [[Princeton University]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mala Murthy named PNI Director {{!}} Neuroscience |url=https://pni.princeton.edu/news/mala-murthy-named-pni-director |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=pni.princeton.edu}}</ref> Her work centers around how the brain extracts important information from the sensory world and utilises that information to modulate behavior in a social context.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pni.princeton.edu/news/mala-murthy-one-five-princeton-professors-among-inaugural-hhmi-simons-faculty-scholars|title=Mala Murthy one of five Princeton professors among inaugural HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholars {{!}} Neuroscience|website=pni.princeton.edu|access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pni.princeton.edu/faculty/mala-murthy|title=Mala Murthy {{!}} Neuroscience|website=pni.princeton.edu|language=en|access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ninds.nih.gov/funding/about-funding/research-program-award-r35/research-program-award-r35-recipients/mala-murthy|title=Mala Murthy {{!}} National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke|website=www.ninds.nih.gov|date=April 2019 |access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> She is most known for her work in acoustic communication and song production in courting [[Drosophila melanogaster|Drosophila]] fruit flies.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Coen|first1=Philip|last2=Clemens|first2=Jan|last3=Weinstein|first3=Andrew J.|last4=Pacheco|first4=Diego A.|last5=Deng|first5=Yi|last6=Murthy|first6=Mala|date=2014-03-13|title=Dynamic sensory cues shape song structure in Drosophila|url=http://www.nature.com/articles/nature13131|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=507|issue=7491|pages=233–237|doi=10.1038/nature13131|pmid=24598544|bibcode=2014Natur.507..233C|s2cid=4406563|issn=0028-0836}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=2015-09-23|title=Connecting Neural Codes with Behavior in the Auditory System of Drosophila|journal=Neuron|language=en|volume=87|issue=6|pages=1332–1343|doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2015.08.014|issn=0896-6273|last1=Clemens|first1=Jan|last2=Girardin|first2=Cyrille C.|last3=Coen|first3=Philip|last4=Guan|first4=Xiao-Juan|last5=Dickson|first5=Barry J.|last6=Murthy|first6=Mala|pmid=26365767|pmc=4629847|s2cid=13264373|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Clemens|first1=Jan|last2=Coen|first2=Philip|last3=Roemschied|first3=Frederic A.|last4=Pereira|first4=Talmo D.|last5=Mazumder|first5=David|last6=Aldarondo|first6=Diego E.|last7=Pacheco|first7=Diego A.|last8=Murthy|first8=Mala|date=2018-08-06|title=Discovery of a New Song Mode in Drosophila Reveals Hidden Structure in the Sensory and Neural Drivers of Behavior|journal=Current Biology|language=en|volume=28|issue=15|pages=2400–2412.e6|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.011|pmc=6830513|pmid=30057309 |bibcode=2018CBio...28E2400C }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Calhoun|first1=Adam J.|last2=Pillow|first2=Jonathan W.|last3=Murthy|first3=Mala|date=December 2019|title=Unsupervised identification of the internal states that shape natural behavior|url= |journal=Nature Neuroscience|language=en|volume=22|issue=12|pages=2040–2049|doi=10.1038/s41593-019-0533-x|pmid=31768056|s2cid=208279147|issn=1546-1726|pmc=7819718}}</ref> Murthy and colleagues have also published an automated system (LEAP and SLEAP) for measuring animal pose in movies with one or more animals.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pereira|first1=Talmo D.|last2=Aldarondo|first2=Diego E.|last3=Willmore|first3=Lindsay|last4=Kislin|first4=Mikhail|last5=Wang|first5=Samuel S.-H.|last6=Murthy|first6=Mala|last7=Shaevitz|first7=Joshua W.|date=January 2019|title=Fast animal pose estimation using deep neural networks|journal=Nature Methods|volume=16|issue=1|pages=117–125|doi=10.1038/s41592-018-0234-5|issn=1548-7105|pmc=6899221|pmid=30573820 |bibcode=2019NatCB..16..117P }}</ref><ref>{{Cite bioRxiv|last1=Pereira|first1=Talmo D.|last2=Tabris|first2=Nathaniel|last3=Li|first3=Junyu|last4=Ravindranath|first4=Shruthi|last5=Papadoyannis|first5=Eleni S.|last6=Wang|first6=Z. Yan|last7=Turner|first7=David M.|last8=McKenzie-Smith|first8=Grace|last9=Kocher|first9=Sarah D.|last10=Falkner|first10=Annegret L.|last11=Shaevitz|first11=Joshua W.|date=2020-09-02|title=SLEAP: Multi-animal pose tracking|language=en|biorxiv=10.1101/2020.08.31.276246}}</ref>
== Education == Prof. Murthy received her B.S. in biology from [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]. She was a Burchards scholar in the humanities and won the John L. Asinari prize for outstanding undergraduate research in the life sciences. She then received her PhD in Neuroscience from [[Stanford University]], working with [[Thomas Schwarz]] and [[Richard Scheller]]. Her thesis research centered on mechanisms of vesicle trafficking to cell membranes. She did postdoctoral work in systems neuroscience with Gilles Laurent at [[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]] as a [[Helen Hay Whitney Foundation|Helen Hay Whitney]] fellow stereotypy in the central brain of [[Drosophila melanogaster|Drosophila]], which is a region of the brain important for learning and memory.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Murthy|first1=Mala|last2=Fiete|first2=Ila|last3=Laurent|first3=Gilles|date=2008-09-25|title=Testing odor response stereotypy in the Drosophila mushroom body|journal=Neuron|volume=59|issue=6|pages=1009–1023|doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2008.07.040|issn=1097-4199|pmc=2654402|pmid=18817738}}</ref>
== Awards and recognition == * The [[National Science Foundation]] CAREER Award<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://commonfund.nih.gov/newinnovator/awardrecipients14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417233203/https://commonfund.nih.gov/newinnovator/AwardRecipients14|archive-date=April 17, 2019|title=NIH Director's New Innovator Award Program - 2014 Award Recipients {{!}} NIH Common Fund|website=commonfund.nih.gov|date=18 September 2018|access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> * Alfred P. Sloan fellowship<ref>{{Cite web|title=Past Fellows|url=https://sloan.org/past-fellows|access-date=2020-10-16|website=sloan.org|archive-date=2018-03-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314000756/https://sloan.org/past-fellows}}</ref> * Klingenstein fellowship<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Esther A. & and Joseph Klingenstein Fund, Inc.|url=https://www.klingfund.org/fellows/fellows12.php|access-date=2020-10-16|website=www.klingfund.org}}</ref> * McKnight Scholar award<ref>{{Cite web|title=Awardees|url=https://www.mcknight.org/programs/the-mcknight-endowment-fund-for-neuroscience/scholar-awards/awardees/|access-date=2020-10-16|website=McKnight Foundation|language=en-US}}</ref> * NINDS Research Program award * Faculty Scholars at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2016)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://media.hhmi.org/FacultyScholars2016-gallery|title=2016 Faculty Scholars|website=2016 Faculty Scholars|language=en|access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> * [[Wiley Prize]] in Biomedical Sciences (2026).<ref>[https://johnwiley2020news.q4web.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2026/The-24th-Annual-Wiley-Prize-in-Biomedical-Sciences-Awarded-for-Research-in-Connectomes/ Wiley Prize 2026]</ref>
== References == <references />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Murthy, Mala}} [[Category:American neuroscientists]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Princeton University faculty]] [[Category:MIT School of Science alumni]] [[Category:Stanford University alumni]] [[Category:American women scientists]] [[Category:1975 births]] [[Category:American women academics]] [[Category:21st-century American women]]