February 13, 2023
Congratulations to our 2022 fellows
FMI researchers are awarded competitive grants and fellowship throughout the year, which speaks for the quality and potential of their work. Here we present FMI postdocs and other young scientists who received fellowships, grants, and prizes in 2022 that will support their research projects and career plans.
LUKAS ANNESER — EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship
(EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowships support young scientists who have demonstrated excellence in their fields throughout Europe and the world for a period of up to two years).
Lukas grew up in Bavaria, Germany and did his PhD at the Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt. He joined the Friedrich group as a postdoc in 2021.
At all times, many different neuromodulators, such as dopamine or serotonin, are released within the brain and change information processing. Mostly, these modulators are studied in isolation because their interactions are incredibly complex. In his project, Lukas aims to map the combinatorial logic of modulation in a specific part of the vertebrate forebrain and try to decipher how the modulators interact to enable cognitive behavior. Deeper insight into combinatorial neuromodulation will help us to understand how brain states are induced and maintained, and how the manipulation of cell membrane receptors called GPCRs — the main target of many modulatory systems and of about 35 % of all approved drugs — alters brain physiology.
NIKOLAS KARALIS — SNSF Ambizione Grant
(SNSF Ambizione Grants are aimed at young researchers who wish to conduct, manage and lead an independent project at a Swiss higher education institution).
Nikolas was born in Athens, Greece and holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Germany. He became a postdoc in the Lüthi lab in 2018.
He is studying how neuromodulators influence the neuronal activity and the communication between brain regions during behavior. His research will help to answer fundamental questions about the organization of brain circuits, which could pave the way for novel therapeutic approaches, for example to treat anxiety disorders.
Nikolas has used parts of his grant to recruit a research technician to work with him on this project. He is currently preparing to launch his own research group in the near future.
AXEL LABORIEUX — SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowship
(Due to Switzerland's current status as a non-associated third country in the Horizon Europe program, scientists based in Switzerland can currently not apply for a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. The SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships have been launched as an alternative).
Axel grew up in France. He defended his PhD at the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, University Paris Saclay in the fall of 2021 and joined the Zenke lab as a postdoc soon after.
The goal of his research project is to better understand the link between connectivity motifs and functions in neural circuits. He is using a machine learning approach to bridge the gap between small circuits where the low-level functions are better understood, and large circuits to test the predictive processing hypothesis. Modelling the link between simple functions and small neuronal circuit motifs is our best chance to understand, and scale to, more abstract functions and dysfunctions of larger neuronal circuits in the brain.
LEONARDO LUPORI— EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship
Leonardo is Italian and just completed his PhD at the Scuola Noramle Superiore in Pisa, Italy. He will become a postdoc in the Keller group on March 1, 2023.
In pathological conditions, the brain has the capacity of creating illusory sensory percepts in absence of any external stimulus — these phenomena are called hallucinations. Antipsychotics are drugs routinely used to reduce such symptoms, however, we still know little about their effect on the neuronal circuits of the cerebral cortex. In his research project, Leonardo will dissect how neuronal activity and cortical computations are affected by antipsychotic treatment. Comprehending the effects of antipsychotics on the brain, will both advance our mechanistic understanding of such drugs and may prove to be a good starting point for unveiling the neuronal substrates of conscious perception.
MATHIAS MAHN — SNSF Ambizione Grant
Mathias grew up in Germany and did his PhD at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. He joined the Lüthi group as a postdoc in 2018.
In his research project, Mathias is examining the long-range connections between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex in mice during value assignment and decision-making. The insights he aims to gain will advance our understanding of emotional processing — and of the dysregulations that may affect it.
Mathias is keen on recruiting a PhD student during the current FMI PhD admission round to work with him on the project.
STEPHEN METHOT — SNSF Ambizione Grant
Stephen is originally from Vancouver in Canada and holds both a Canadian and a Cypriot citizenship. After his PhD at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, he joined the FMI in 2017; he was first in the lab of Susan Gasser and moved to the lab of Helge Grosshans in 2021.
Stephen wants to understand how animals can achieve and restrict dynamic changes to chromatin during development, and specifically which factors are necessary to coordinate changes over time and how cell identity is maintained. He also wants to study what happens in animals when these processes are disrupted. This work is important because we know very little about the dynamics of chromatin in living animals, yet perturbations to these systems are associated with many diseases such as cancer and aging.
Stephen is planning to recruit a PhD student during the current FMI PhD admission round and is setting up some collaborations to advance his project.
ALICIA MICHAEL — University of Basel Research Fund Junior Researchers grant and LS2 PI of Tomorrow Jury Prize
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