Rate My Professor Nicholas Bellono

Nicholas Bellono is a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. He earned his PhD in cell physiology and ion channel biophysics from Brown University in 2015. Following his doctoral studies, Bellono conducted postdoctoral research in sensory biology at the University of California, San Francisco from 2015 to 2018. He joined the Harvard faculty in 2018 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2023. Bellono directs the Bellono Lab, which employs a curiosity-driven approach to study how organisms adapt to their ecological and behavioral niches through molecular mechanisms of signal transduction, ion channel biophysics, and evolution.

His research utilizes unconventional animal models, including octopuses, sea anemones, sharks, skates, and sea robins, to reveal fundamental principles of sensory biology and cell physiology. Notable publications include Villar et al., 'A sensory system for mating in octopus' (Science, 2026); Valencia-Montoya et al., 'Infrared radiation is an ancient pollination signal' (Science, 2025); Sepela et al., 'Environmental microbiomes drive chemotactile sensation in octopus' (Cell, 2025); Allard et al., 'Structural basis of sensory receptor evolution in octopus' (Nature, 2023); and van Giesen et al., 'Molecular basis of chemotactile sensation in octopus' (Cell, 2020). Earlier contributions encompass electroreception in sharks and skates (Nature, 2017 and 2018) and gut chemosensors (Cell, 2017). Bellono has been recognized with the 2024 Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience, the 2019 Searle Scholar Award providing $300,000 over three years, the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Neuroscience, and the NYSCF-Robertson Neuroscience Investigator Award. His discoveries have profoundly influenced neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and sensory physiology by demonstrating the evolvability of ion channels and sensory systems. Bellono teaches Principles of Cell Physiology (MCB 175).