Social interactions account for a major part of human life and prove essential for the mental and physical health of human beings. During social isolation, people can experience loneliness and depression and tend to seek social interactions proactively. Such need for homeostasis of social contact goes beyond human beings and is conserved in many animals. My interest is to understand the brain circuits that control the social homeostasis. Mice crave social contact and serve as an excellent model for studying social behaviors. My research will focus on the specific neurons in mice which respond to social isolation and reunion. I seek to identify the molecules and signaling pathways inside these neurons encoding the social drive and specifically influenced by social isolation.