The Datta lab has been awarded its first RO1 award from the National Institutes of Deafness and Communications Disorders. This five-year grant — the workhorse funding mechanism used by the NIH in the biomedical sciences — will support the lab’s efforts to probe the general structure and functional architecture of neural circuits within the olfactory bulb and within regions of the olfactory cortex. Bob was also recently awarded a McKnight Scholars Award and a Searle Scholars Award, which was recently covered in the Harvard Focus. These awards are given to young investigators to kick start their independent research programs, and are intended to fund high-risk, high-reward projects; the McKnight will be used to explore the new potential molecular mechanisms for odor sensation in the sensory periphery, and the Searle to characterize functional responses to odors in higher olfactory centers.