Cecil Saunders , Ph.D.
Biography
Dr. Cecil J. Saunders is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Kean University. His research laboratory is dedicated to exploring the comparative neurobiology of the chemical senses, primarily utilizing earthworms as a model system. This research is a natural progression of his long-standing fascination with sensory systems responsible for detecting chemical stimuli, including the often-overlooked chemical sense of chemesthesis and the non-canonical expression of chemosensory receptors. His journey into chemesthesis began in the lab of Wayne Silver at Wake Forest University, where his thesis described TRPV1-dependent airway irritation. Following his M.S. in Biology, Dr. Saunders joined Tom Finger's lab at the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center and the University of Colorado, where his dissertation focused on specialized epithelial chemosensors, specifically solitary chemosensory cells that trigger inflammation upon detecting chemicals produced by nascent bacterial infections. He continued this work as a postdoctoral researcher in Noam Cohen's lab within the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, as a Research Assistant Professor in the Biology department at Wake Forest University, his research focus broadened to include invertebrate models to facilitate undergraduate research in the comparative neurobiology of the chemical senses.