Download Gero Miesenböck

Gero Miesenböck
Associate Head of Department , Waynflete Professor of Physiology
Neural circuits: the interface of cellular and systems neuroscience
Re se a rch Th e me s
Divisional Themes
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Neuroscience
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Cell and Molecular Biology
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Behavioural Science
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Imaging
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Genetics and Genomics
Gr o u p M e mb e rs
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Dennis Kaetzel
Andrew Lin, Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow
Paul Overton
Moshe Parnas
Diogo Pimentel
Yan Tan
Robert D. Roorda
Eleftheria Vrontou, EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow
Web
Personal Website
Email
[email protected]
Tel
01865 282261
Fax
01865 272469
PA
Fiona Woods
Email (PA)
[email protected]
Tel (PA)
01865 272496
Contact address
Sherrington Building, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PT
Department
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
College
Magdalen College
Gero Miesenböck is Waynflete Professor of Physiology. A native of Austria, he
received his medical degree from the University of Innsbruck in 1993 and then
moved to the United States as a postdoctoral fellow with James Rothman. Before
coming to Oxford in 2007, he held faculty appointments at Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center in New York and at Yale University.
Miesenböck is the principal architect of the emerging field of "optogenetics", which
develops genetic strategies for observing and controlling the function of brain circuits
with light. He uses these optical approaches to read and change the minds of fruit
flies (and other species); his current research focuses on the structure and dynamics
of circuits involved in sensory processing, memory, action selection, and motor
pattern generation.
Miesenböck Research
Neural circuits: the interface of cellular and systems neuroscience
Guided by the notion that biology itself offers some of the most incisive tools for
studying biological systems, we rely on basic cellular mechanisms and materials
encoded in DNA to record and remote-control the activity of nerve cells in the living
brain. Our interests lie at the interface between cellular and systems neuroscience:
we aim to understand how excitable cells are arranged into functional circuits, and
how the operation of these circuits informs behaviour.
To illuminate circuit mechanisms, we study explants
of mouse brains in which specific classes of neurons
have been programmed genetically to be
light-addressable. This allows us to feed synthetic
‘test patterns’ into the circuitry and trace the
transformations of these patterns in optical or
electrophysiological recordings, with the intent of
revealing the underlying information-processing
architectures and computational principles.
To relate circuit states to behaviour, we work with another genetically tractable
organism, the fruit fly. We observe or induce changes in the physiological states of
genetically defined groups of neurons in the intact brain and correlate them with
behavioural states to decipher the neural signals used to represent ‘content’.
Selected Publications
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Claridge-Chang Adam, Roorda Robert D, Vrontou Eleftheria, Sjulson Lucas, Li
Haiyan, Hirsh Jay, and Miesenbock Gero (2009) Writing memories with
light-addressable reinforcement circuitry. Cell, 139(2):405-15.
Claridge-Chang Adam, Roorda Robert D, Vrontou Eleftheria, Sjulson Lucas, Li
Haiyan, Hirsh Jay, and Miesenbock Gero (2009) Writing memories with
light-addressable reinforcement circuitry. Cell, 139(2):405-15.
Miesenbock Gero (2009) The optogenetic catechism. Science,
326(5951):395-9.
Miesenbock Gero (2008) Lighting up the brain. Sci Am, 299(4):52-9.
Sjulson Lucas and Miesenbock Gero (2008) Rational optimization and imaging
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in vivo of a genetically encoded optical voltage reporter. J Neurosci,
28(21):5582-93.
Shang Yuhua, Claridge-Chang Adam, Sjulson Lucas, Pypaert Marc, and
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Miesenbock Gero (2007)Excitatory local circuits and their implications for
olfactory processing in the fly antennal lobe. Cell, 128(3):601-12.
Sjulson Lucas and Miesenbock Gero (2007) Optical recording of action
potentials and other discrete physiological events: a perspective from signal
detection theory. Physiology (Bethesda), 22:47-55.
Lima Susana Q and Miesenbock Gero (2005) Remote control of behavior
through genetically targeted photostimulation of neurons. Cell,
121(1):141-52.
Miesenbock Gero and Kevrekidis Ioannis G (2005) Optical imaging and control
of genetically designated neurons in functioning circuits. Annu Rev Neurosci,
28:533-63.