How are neural circuits ‘genetically encoded’ ?
The genome does not describe the wiring diagram, it contains information to grow the wiring diagram.
Neurogenetics is the study of the genes that shape neuronal development and function. The genetic approach implies that it is indeed genes, their regulation and their products, that give rise to the complexity of neuronal networks. How can a few thousand genes and their regulatory elements contain the information required to, say, wire a fly’s brain to be capable of a feat like computing safe flight in three dimensions? We want to understand the rules that underlie the development, function and maintenance of neural networks.
Our task is to try to understand the decoding of genetic information during brain development. Our favorite approach is live observation of the development of brain wiring – the self-assembly of the brain – using Drosophila as a model.
Current Projects Based on Active Grants
Synaptic Promiscuity in Brain Development
2021-2026
see synpromiscuity.flygen.org for more information
From Imprecision to Robustness in Neural Circuit Assembly
2022-2026
see robustcircuit.flygen.org for more information
Autophagic Regulation of Synapse Formation and Maintenance
2021-2025
see syntophagy.de for more information
Acute Control of Intracellular Trafficking Through Rab GTPases in Living tissues in Drosophila
2020-2024
Collaboration with the Michael Boutros Lab in Heidelberg
see trr186.de for more information
Neuronal Interaction Dynamics During Neural Circuit Assembly – A live imaging and computational modeling approach for the Drosophila brain
2021-2024
see DFG for more information
Collaboration with the Max von Kleist Lab in Berlin
Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Neural Superposition in Drosophila
2020-2023
see DFG for more information