Eric Hoopfer

Education & Professional History

University of Michigan, BS; Stanford University, PhD

Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Visiting Scientist, 2014

California Institute of Technology, Postdoctoral Fellow & Research Scientist, 2019

Research in the Hoopfer Lab is focused on understanding how social behaviors are encoded in the brain. My research combines techniques from molecular biology, genetics, and animal behavior to study the genes and neural circuits that regulate social behavior like aggression and courtship. Projects in the lab use the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to investigate the neural circuit mechanisms that regulate these behaviors and the underlying brain states that influence them.

Current research is focused on identifying the neural circuits that mediate aggressive behavior. To do this, we are using genetic techniques to label neurons that show increased activity when flies are fighting. This genetic labeling technique allows us to characterize the morphology of these populations using confocal microscopy and activate or inhibit their firing in order to understand how they affect aggressive behavior. A second research focus is on understanding how neuromodulators motivate flies to engage in social behaviors. We are using associative learning assays combined with genetic manipulation of neuronal activity to investigate the neuromodulators that underlie reward states associated with social behaviors like mating and courtship.

To learn more about how we are using fruit flies to understand social behavior, check out this video on work that I did as a postdoctoral fellow in David Anderson’s lab at Caltech.

Chiu H, Hoopfer ED, Coughlan ML, Pavlou HJ, Goodwin SF, Anderson DJ. (2021) A circuit logic for sexually shared and dimorphic aggressive behaviors in Drosophila. Cell, 184(3),847.

Duistermars BJ, Pfeiffer BD, Hoopfer ED, Anderson DJ. (2018) A brain module for scalable control of complex, multi-motor threat displays. Neuron, 100(6),1474.

Watanabe K, Chiu H, Pfeiffer BD, Wong A, Hoopfer ED, Rubin GM, Anderson DJ. (2017) A circuit node that integrates convergent input from neuromodulatory and social behavior-promoting neurons to control aggression in Drosophila. Neuron, 95(5), 1112-1128.

Hoopfer ED. Neural control of aggression in Drosophila. (2016) Curr Opin Neurobiol, 38,109.

Hoopfer ED, Jung Y, Inagaki HK, Rubin GM, Anderson DJ. (2015) P1 interneurons promote a persistent internal state that enhances inter-male aggression in Drosophila. eLife, 4.

• Featured in “These fighting fruit flies are superheroes of brain science.” Deep Look, KQED Science (2017)

Inagaki HK^†, Jung Y^†, Hoopfer ED, Wong AM, Mishra N, Lin JY, Tsien RY, Anderson DJ. (2014) Optogenetic control of Drosophila using red-shifted channelrhodopsin reveals experience-dependent influences on courtship. Nature Methods, 11(3), 325-32. ^†Denotes equal contribution.

Asahina K, Watanabe K, Duistermars BJ, Hoopfer ED, González CR, Eyjólfsdóttir EA, Perona P, Anderson DJ. (2014) Tachykinin-expressing neurons control male-specific aggressive arousal in Drosophila. Cell, 156(1-2), 221-35.

Eyjólfsdóttir E, Branson S, Burgos-Artizzu XP, Hoopfer ED, Schor J, Anderson DJ, Perona P. (2014) Detecting Social Actions of Fruit Flies. In Computer Vision – ECCV 2014, D. Fleet, T. Pajdla, B. Schiele, and T. Tuytelaars, eds. (Cham: Springer International Publishing), 772–787.

Kennedy A, Asahina K, Hoopfer ED, Inagaki H, Jung Y, Lee H, Remedios R, Anderson DJ. (2014) Internal States and Behavioral Decision-Making: Toward an Integration of Emotion and Cognition. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol, 79,199-210.

Bonnet RM, Hoopfer ED, Denver RJ. (2010) Molecular mechanisms of corticosteroid synergy with thyroid hormone during tadpole metamorphosis. General and Comparative Endocrinology, 168(2), 209-19.

Dankert H, Wang L, Hoopfer ED, Anderson DJ, Perona P. (2009) Automated monitoring and analysis of social behavior in Drosophila. Nature Methods, 6(4), 297-303.

Hoopfer ED, Penton A, Watts RJ, Luo L. (2008) Genomic analysis of Drosophila neuronal remodeling: a role for the RNA-binding protein Boule as a negative regulator of axon pruning. J. Neuroscience, 28(24), 6092-103.

Hoopfer ED, McLaughlin T, Watts RJ, Schuldiner O, O’Leary DDM, Luo L. (2006) Wld^s protection distinguishes axon degeneration following injury from naturally occurring developmental pruning. Neuron, 50(6), 883-895.

Zhai Z, Wang J, Kim A, Liu Q, Watts RJ, Hoopfer ED, Mitchison T, Luo L, He Z. (2003) Involvement of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in the early stages of Wallerian degeneration. Neuron, 39(2), 217-225.

Watts RJ, Hoopfer ED, Luo L. (2003) Axon pruning during Drosophila metamorphosis: evidence for local degeneration and requirement of the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Neuron, 38(6), 871-885.

Hoopfer ED, Huang L, Denver RJ. (2002) Basic transcription element binding protein is a thyroid hormone-regulated transcription factor expressed during metamorphosis in Xenopus laevis. Development, Growth & Differentiation, 44(5), 365-381.