whoami
Jacopo Razzauti
Behavioural neuroscientist at The Rockefeller University in New York. I graduated in Neuroscience from the University of Dundee and, throughout my academic path, I have worked in very different places across the world — from the dry forests of north-western Madagascar and the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology to northern British Columbia.
In the Vosshall lab I study mosquito sensory biology and repellency, and I help build open-source tools like FERAL for quantitative analysis of animal behaviour. Outside the lab, most of what I do still revolves around animals in one way or another, often with a camera in hand. This website collects a few of those interests.
recent publications
- Skovorodnikov, P., Zhao, J., Buck, F., Kay, T., Frank, D. D., Koger, B., Costelloe, B. R., Couzin, I. D. & Razzauti, J. FERAL: A video-understanding system for direct video-to-behavior mapping. bioRxiv (2025). doi:10.1101/2025.11.16.688666
- Goldman, O. V., DeFoe, A. E., Qi, Y., Jiao, Y., Weng, S.-C., Wick, B., Houri-Zeevi, L., Lakhiani, P., Morita, T., Razzauti, J. , Rosas-Villegas, A. & Tsitohay, Y. N. et al. A single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of the adult Aedes aegypti mosquito. Cell (2025). doi:10.1016/j.cell.2025.10.008
- Houri-Zeevi, L., Walker, M. M., Razzauti, J. , Sharma, A., Pasolli, H. A. & Vosshall, L. B. A rapidly evolving female-controlled lock-and-key mechanism determines Aedes mosquito mating success. Curr. Biol. 35, 5460–5474.e8 (2025). doi:10.1016/j.cub.2025.09.066
- Snir, O., Alwaseem, H., Heissel, S., Sharma, A., Valdés-Rodríguez, S., Carroll, T. S., Jiang, C. S., Razzauti, J. & Kronauer, D. J. C. The pupal moulting fluid has evolved social functions in ants. Nature 612, 488–494 (2022). doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05480-9
in the press
A few places where my science or my photography has shown up.
- la Repubblica "I sette nuovi talenti italiani della biomedicina" — profile of the 2019 Amgen Scholars cohort. →
- National Geographic "Ants make milk" — coverage of our 2022 Nature paper on the social functions of pupal moulting fluid in ants. →
- 30Science "Da Livorno a New York per studiare le formiche che allattano" — Italian-language coverage of the same paper. →
- Nature Mosquito mating photography accompanying a Nature feature. →
- Scientific American "Glowing sperm reveals how female mosquitoes control sex" — featured photography. →
timeline
A few milestones from my academic path, projects, and expeditions so far.
2025
Launched FERAL (Feature Extraction for Recognition of Animal Locomotion)
Co-developed FERAL together with Peter Skovorodnikov, a supervised video-understanding tool for direct
video-to-behaviour mapping. FERAL allows scientists to quantify discrete behaviours without tracking,
overcoming several limitations in the current field of quantitative ethology.
2025
Joined The Explorers Club
Became a member of The Explorers Club.
2024
Mars Desert Research Station expeditions
Served as crew biologist on Martian biology missions at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert,
combining ecology, astrobiology and fieldwork.
2024
Awarded the Price Family Center for the Social Brain Fellowship
In 2024 I became a fellow of the Price Center for the Social Brain.
2024
Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship
Awarded a Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD fellowship in support of my work on mosquito neurogenetics
and machine-learning–based behavioural analysis.
2022
Nature paper on social fluids in ants
Co-authored a Nature paper showing that the pupal moulting fluid has evolved social functions in
ants, bridging development, physiology and social behaviour.
2022
Started my PhD in mosquito neurogenetics
Started my PhD at The Rockefeller University in the lab of Leslie Vosshall, focusing on mosquito
neurogenetics, repellency and sensory-driven behaviour.
2021
Moving to New York and joining Rockefeller
Moved to New York City to join The Rockefeller University. In my first year I rotated in the Vosshall,
Ruta and Kronauer labs working on mosquitoes, fruit flies and ants.
2021
Graduated from University of Dundee
In the summer of 2021 I obtained my Neuroscience BSc (Hons.) with first class from University of Dundee
with a thesis on the electrophysiological effects of the antidepressant tianeptine on a mouse model of
early-life adversity.
2019
AMGEN Symposium talk at the University of Cambridge
Presented “Optogenetic Dissection of Descending Behavioural Control in Zebrafish Larvae” at the
AMGEN Scholars Symposium at the University of Cambridge, sharing early work at the interface of systems
neuroscience and behaviour.
2019
AMGEN Scholar at Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology
Awarded the AMGEN Scholarship and worked on optogenetic dissection of descending behavioural control in
zebrafish larvae at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Munich, in the lab of Dr Herwig Baier.
2018
Exchange year in northern British Columbia
In 2018–19 I spent one year as an exchange student at the University of Northern British Columbia,
studying for two semesters in Prince George and conducting research on cognition and physical exercise
in humans.
2018
First field expedition to Madagascar
In the summer of 2018 I conducted ecological surveys in the Mariarano Forest in Madagascar, working on
biodiversity and species-specific survey techniques.
2017
Started my Neuroscience degree in Dundee
In 2017 I left Italy and moved to Scotland to pursue a BSc in Neurosciences at the University of Dundee.
2011
First public talk about science
At the age of 13 I gave my first public talk about science at the local Museum of Natural History in
Livorno, my hometown. I talked about animal behaviour and extreme behavioural adaptations in fish.
