Skip to main content

Melanie Maya Kaelberer

Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine
Medicine, Gastroenterology
Box 2651, MSRB-I, 203 Research Drive, Durham, NC 27710
MSRB-1, Room 215, 203 Research Drive, Durham, NC 27710

Overview


I am a sensory neuro-gastroenterologist. My laboratory studies the connection between the brain and the gut.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine · 2025 - Present Medicine, Gastroenterology, Medicine
Assistant Professor in Neurobiology · 2024 - Present Neurobiology, Basic Science Departments

Recent Publications


The pressure not to eat.

Journal Article Nat Metab · March 2024 Full text Link to item Cite

The preference for sugar over sweetener depends on a gut sensor cell.

Journal Article Nature neuroscience · February 2022 Guided by gut sensory cues, humans and animals prefer nutritive sugars over non-caloric sweeteners, but how the gut steers such preferences remains unknown. In the intestine, neuropod cells synapse with vagal neurons to convey sugar stimuli to the brain wi ... Full text Cite
View All Publications

Recent Grants


Efferent modulation of neuropod cells in the small intestine

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2022 - 2027

Gut glutamatergic neurotransmission in sugar preference

ResearchCollaborating Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2021 - 2026

The efferent synapse in neuropod cells

ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2019 - 2024

View All Grants

Education, Training & Certifications


Yale University · 2016 Ph.D.