Adil R Wani

Adil R. Wani is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Özel Lab at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. He is interested in understanding how neuronal identity and diversity are established during brain development. His research focuses on the gene regulatory mechanisms that control neuronal specification and the formation of functional neural circuits. During his PhD training in the laboratory of Mubarak Hussain Syed, he used *Drosophila* as a model system to study the development of central complex neurons, with a particular focus on dorsal fan-shaped body neurons. He investigated how developmental lineage programs and hormonal signaling pathways, including ecdysone signaling, regulate neuronal identity and circuit assembly in the developing brain. Using developmental genetics, lineage tracing, and functional neurobiology, he examined how these mechanisms shape neural circuits that contribute to behaviors such as sleep regulation.