Inmates

Robin did his undergraduate and graduate studies in genetics, computational biology and philosophy (totally shows) at the University of Freiburg in Germany. He then did a postdoc at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and was Assistant and Associate Professor for more than 8 years at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. After 15 years (!!!) in Texas and a life with no fast food, no TV, no gun and no right to vote, he moved to Berlin in 2015.

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Postdocs

Our Chemical Engineer-turned-Biologist. Working on neural superposition for 10+ years…

Axonal self-sorting without target guidance in Drosophila visual map formation. Agi E, Reifenstein ET, Wit C, Schneider T, Kauer M, Kehribar M, Kulkarni A, von Kleist M, Hiesinger PR. Science. 2024 Mar 8;383(6687):1084-1092. doi: 10.1126/science.adk3043. Epub 2024 Mar 7.

– Agi, E., Kulkarni, A., and Hiesinger, P.R. (2020). Neuronal strategies for meting the right partner during brain wiring. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol, 63:1-8.
– Langen, M.*, Agi, E.*, Altschuler, D., Wu, L.*, Altschuler, S.*, and Hiesinger, P.R.* (2015) The Developmental Rules of Neural Superposition. Cell, 162(1):120-33 | [PDF] | [Suppl. Materials PDF] Highlighted in: Wernet, M.F. and Desplan, C. (2015) Brain Wiring in the Fourth Dimension | Cell [PDF]

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From filopodial dynamics to brain wiring. (since April 2022)

Fuchs, J. and Hiesinger, P.R. (2023). Brain wiring: Love the one you’re with. Curr Biol. (Dispatch). 33(13):R727-R729

– Precursor types predict the stability of neuronal branches. Fuchs J, Eickholt BJ. J Cell Sci. 2021 Dec 1;134(23):jcs258983. doi: 10.1242/jcs.258983.
– Harnessing PTEN’s Growth Potential in Neuronal Development and Disease. Fuchs J, Eickholt BJ, Leondaritis G. Neurosci Insights. 2020 Sep 13;15:2633105520959056. doi: 10.1177/2633105520959056.
– The Axonal Membrane Protein PRG2 Inhibits PTEN and Directs Growth to Branches. Brosig A, Fuchs J, Ipek F, Kroon C, Schrötter S, Vadhvani M, Polyzou A, Ledderose J, van Diepen M, Holzhütter HG, Trimbuch T, Gimber N, Schmoranzer J, Lieberam I, Rosenmund C, Spahn C, Scheerer P, Szczepek M, Leondaritis G, Eickholt BJ. Cell Rep. 2019 Nov 12;29(7):2028-2040.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.10.039.

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The role of time in brain wiring.

Axonal self-sorting without target guidance in Drosophila visual map formation. Agi E, Reifenstein ET, Wit C, Schneider T, Kauer M, Kehribar M, Kulkarni A, von Kleist M, Hiesinger PR. Science. 2024 Mar 8;383(6687):1084-1092. doi: 10.1126/science.adk3043. Epub 2024 Mar 7.

– Agi, E., Kulkarni, A., and Hiesinger, P.R. (2020). Neuronal strategies for meting the right partner during brain wiring. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol, 63:1-8.
– Ozel, M.N.*, Kulkarni, A.*, Hasan, A.*, Brummer, J., Moldenhauer, M., Daumann, I.M., Wolfenberg, H., Dercksen, V.J., Kiral, F.R., Weiser, M., Prohaska, S., von KLeinst, M.*, Hiesinger, P.R.* Serial synapse formation through filopodial competition for synaptic seeding factors, Developmental Cell 50(4):447-461.e8.

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Developmental processes of CNS formation and their genetic regulation. (since March 2022).

Synaptic promiscuity in brain development. Wolterhoff N, Hiesinger PR. Curr Biol. 2024 Feb 5;34(3):R102-R116. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.037.

– PP2A phosphatase is required for dendrite pruning via actin regulation in Drosophila. Wolterhoff N, Gigengack U, Rumpf S. EMBO Rep. 2020 May 6;21(5):e48870. doi: 10.15252/embr.201948870.
– Functions of Microtubule Disassembly during Neurite Pruning. Rumpf S, Wolterhoff N, Herzmann S. Trends Cell Biol. 2019 Apr;29(4):291-297. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2019.01.002.

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Input density tunes Kenyon cell sensory responses in the Drosophila mushroom body. Ahmed M, Rajagopalan AE, Pan Y, Li Y, Williams DL, Pedersen EA, Thakral M, Previero A, Close KC, Christoforou CP, Cai D, Turner GC, Clowney EJ. Curr Biol. 2023 Jul 10;33(13):2742-2760.e12. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.05.064. Epub 2023 Jun 21.

Untangling the wires: development of sparse, distributed connectivity in the mushroom body calyx. Puñal VM, Ahmed M, Thornton-Kolbe EM, Clowney EJ. Cell Tissue Res. 2021 Jan;383(1):91-112. doi: 10.1007/s00441-020-03386-4. Epub 2021 Jan 6.

Presynaptic developmental plasticity allows robust sparse wiring of the Drosophila mushroom body. Elkahlah NA, Rogow JA, Ahmed M, Clowney EJ. Elife. 2020 Jan 8;9:e52278. doi: 10.7554/eLife.52278.

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Connectomic reconstruction predicts the functional organization of visual inputs to the navigation center of the Drosophila brain. Garner D, Kind E, Nern A, Houghton L, Zhao A, Sancer G, Rubin GM, Wernet MF, Kim SS. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2023 Nov 30:2023.11.29.569241. doi: 10.1101/2023.11.29.569241.

Neuronal “parts list” and wiring diagram for a visual system. Matsliah A, Yu SC, Kruk K, Bland D, Burke A, Gager J, Hebditch J, Silverman B, Willie K, Willie R, Sorek M, Sterling AR, Kind E, Garner D, Sancer G, Wernet MF, Kim SS, Murthy M, Seung HS; FlyWire Consortium. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Apr 15:2023.10.12.562119. doi: 10.1101/2023.10.12.562119.

Synaptic targets of photoreceptors specialized to detect color and skylight polarization in Drosophila. Kind E, Longden KD, Nern A, Zhao A, Sancer G, Flynn MA, Laughland CW, Gezahegn B, Ludwig HD, Thomson AG, Obrusnik T, Alarcón PG, Dionne H, Bock DD, Rubin GM, Reiser MB, Wernet MF. Elife. 2021 Dec 16;10:e71858. doi: 10.7554/eLife.71858.

Cellular and synaptic adaptations of neural circuits processing skylight polarization in the fly. Sancer G, Kind E, Uhlhorn J, Volkmann J, Hammacher J, Pham T, Plazaola-Sasieta H, Wernet MF. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2020 Mar;206(2):233-246. doi: 10.1007/s00359-019-01389-3. Epub 2019 Dec 6.

Vision: Space and colour meet in the fly optic lobes. Kind E, Wernet MF. Curr Biol. 2021 Jul 26;31(14):R909-R912. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.009.

Modality-Specific Circuits for Skylight Orientation in the Fly Visual System. Sancer G, Kind E, Plazaola-Sasieta H, Balke J, Pham T, Hasan A, Münch LO, Courgeon M, Mathejczyk TF, Wernet MF. Curr Biol. 2019 Sep 9;29(17):2812-2825.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.07.020. Epub 2019 Aug 8.

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PhD Students

Rab GTPases in neuronal development and maintenance.

– Kohrs, F.E*, Daumann, I.M.*, Pavlović, B., Jin, E.J., Lin, S.C. Port, F., Kiral, F.R., Wolfenberg, H., Mathejczyk, T.F., Linneweber, G.A., Chan, C.C., Boutros, M., Hiesinger, P.R. (2021) Systematic functional analysis of Rab GTPases reveals limits of neuronal robustness to environmental challenges in flies eLife 10:e59594 * co-first authors

Daumann, I.-M. and Hiesinger, P.R. (2023). Lipid rafts, rab GTPases and a late endosomal checkpoint for plasma membrane recycling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 120(14):e2302320120.

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Molecular Mechanisms of Early Pattern Formation in the Visual Map.

Axonal self-sorting without target guidance in Drosophila visual map formation. Agi E, Reifenstein ET, Wit C, Schneider T, Kauer M, Kehribar M, Kulkarni A, von Kleist M, Hiesinger PR.Science. 2024 Mar 8;383(6687):1084-1092. doi: 10.1126/science.adk3043. Epub 2024 Mar 7.

Turnover of synaptic adhesion molecules. Nabavi M, Hiesinger PR.Mol Cell Neurosci. 2023 Mar;124:103816. doi: 10.1016/j.mcn.2023.103816. Epub 2023 Jan 14.

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Lab Manager & Technical Assistance

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Alumni

• Suchetana Dutta, former PhD student (together with Bassem Hassan)
• Charlotte Wit, former PhD student
• Friederike Kohrs, former PhD student
• Ferdi Ridvan Kiral, former PhD student, now PostDoc with In-Hyun Park at Yale
• Eugene Jennifer Jin, former PhD student, now Postdoc with Yishi Jin at UCSD
• Mehmet Neset Özel, former PhD student, now Asst. Prof. at the Stowers Institute, US
• Marion Langen PhD, former Postdoctoral Fellow, now PostDoc with Altschuler/Wu Lab at UCSF
• Chih-Chiang Chan PhD, former Postdoctoral Fellow, now Associate Professor at National Taiwan University
• W. Ryan Williamson PhD, former Graduate Student, now Postdoc at Janelia Farm, Laboratory Dr. Card
• Adam Haberman PhD, former PostDoc, now Associate Professor at University of San Diego