- Speaker
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Zuri Sullivan, Ph.D.Assistant Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The 2026 lecture series in neuroscience and autism science, titled “Brain and Body: Communication and Connection,” will explore how the brain and body influence each other’s functions through continuous information exchange. Talks will emphasize interoceptive and visceral sensory pathways as well as the molecular, cellular and circuit mechanisms that mediate these bidirectional interactions. From gut mucosa and adipose tissue to bone and immune pathways, speakers will provide insights into how the brain-body communication supports adaptive function and contributes to health and disease.
2026 Lecture Series Themes
Biology – Folding the Future: The Structural Biology Revolution
Mathematics and Computer Science – Randomness
Neuroscience and Autism Science – Brain and Body: Communication and Connection
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Host defense systems are essential for life across diverse species. In humans and other mammals, innate and adaptive immunity enable the detection, elimination and memory of encounters with pathogens at the cellular and tissue scales. At the organism scale, bidirectional communication between the immune system and the brain generates changes in physiology and behavior — such as fever, lethargy and anorexia — collectively known as sickness behavior.
In this Presidential Lecture, Zuri Sullivan will explore sickness behavior through the lens of host defense. By framing sickness as immunity operating at the organismal scale, she will explore potential parallels with cellular and tissue immunity to define new questions about the mechanisms and consequences of brain–immune system communication: Does the brain differentiate between different kinds of pathogens? What molecular signals and cellular effectors lead to sickness in different contexts? When is sickness adaptive for the host, the pathogen, or neither? These discussions aim to link sickness to broader themes of host defense — a fundamental challenge for biological systems.
About the Speaker
Sullivan is a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, an assistant professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Hanna Gray Faculty Fellow. She earned her A.B. in molecular and cellular Biology at Harvard University, a Ph.D. in immunobiology from Yale University and completed postdoctoral training in neuroscience at Harvard University. Sullivan joined the Whitehead Institute in January 2026, where her lab studies how interactions between the brain and the immune system promote host defense at the organism scale.