International Graduate School of Neuroscience

Research Interests

Our lab is interested in understanding the modulation of neuronal signals, which determine emotional and motor behavior. Modulatory signals in the brain are mediated by G protein coupled receptors. These GPCRs are expressed on every cell type in the brain and sense differences in the behavior by converting extracellular cues into intracellular signals. There are more than 350 different family excluding odorant receptors in the brain, which play an important role as therapeutic target. In fact 60% of all FDA approved drugs act on GPCRs. We are interested in three main research topics:

Serotonin: Signaling Cascades and Emotion

The neurotransmitter serotonin modulates our emotional behavior such as anxiety and aggression. Changes in the serotonin levels in the brain leads to anxiety and depression. Serotonin mediates its effect in the brain via 6 different groups of GPCRs, which activate different signaling cascades inside the cell. One of our goals is now to understand the importance of these signaling cascades for anxiety and aggression. In order to understand and control the signaling cascades of the serotonergic system in vivo in their target regions such as the cortex, the amygdala and the hypothalamus and to gain an understanding how these signals modulate the behavior of the animals we are using transgenic and virus approaches in combination with optogenetic techniques.

Optogenetics

Optogenetics is a new technique, where light activated proteins derived from bacteria, algae, plants or animals are expressed in for example neuron of the mouse brain. The goal of this techniques is to switch on and off signaling cascades with high temporal and spatial resolution using light in specific types of cells and cellular compartments. We are using in particular vertebrate opsins of the human and mouse retina, to control GPCR signals to understand the function of the GPCR signals to elicit and modulate mouse behavior.

Bioluminesence and fluorescent proteins

Bioluminescence is the capability of animals, fungi or bacteria to produce light. Bioluminescence is one of the most fascinating phenomena in animal kingdom and has been independently developed during evolution many times. Surprisingly, very little information is available about the function and importance of bioluminescence for animal behavior. One of our main goals is therefore to understand the role of the bioluminescent signal from flash light fish for the behavior in its native environment and in the lab, and how the signal is processed in the fish brain. Flash light fish live close to the surface from coral reefs in for example Egypt and Indonesia.