News:
2017-09-15
New Publication
It is the final reward for Xiaojuan after a long struggle to comprehensively survey synapses formed by VIP-expressing GABAergic boutons through a combination of pre-embedding YFP-staining and post-embedding GABA-immunogold labeling. Much to our own surprise at most some 37% of a subcellular target structure is formed by GABAergic neurons, thus, as a population the VIP cells can not be interneuron-specific interneurons. Please check out Cerebral Cortex forhttps://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/doi/10.1093/cercor/bhx220/4096367/Subcellular-Targeting-of-VIP-Boutons-in-Mouse?guestAccessKey=4cd281a1-5804-4efc-a1df-1cc0b3295b9e
2017-09-05
Business trip 2017 - reprise
It is more about the picture than anything else ... . 17 scientists from 9 different countries standing in front of the Witzenhausen green house to see coffee, cocoa, papaya, stevia, banana, and and and. Not to forget calabasses. That really worked for us.
2017-09-03
Memorial symposium for Michael Frotscher
Some 100 friends and colleagues gathered on Friday, September, 1st, in Hamburg to hold a memorial symposium for Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Frotscher, who suddenly died in May this year. What has been planned to be a symposium on the occasion of his 70th birthday sadly had to be renamed but nevertheless took place to show the appreciation and to express the gratitude of many former colleagues, friends and co-workers to this exceptional scientist.https://www.leopoldina.org/fileadmin/redaktion/Veranstaltungen/Symposien/2017_09_01_PROGRAMM_Neurons.pptx.pdf
2017-08-25
Business trip 2017
No joke - our business trip this year led us to the small but very beautiful city "Witzenhausen" being located in North-Hesse. It held a lot of pleasant surprises for us. A green house of the University of Kassel with lots of exciting plants. A microbrewery with (basically) unlimited lager to test. A very relaxed Café (Ringelnatz), with a pleasant athmosphere. For the brave ones, a jump into the green lake and some home-made tarte flambée rounded up a perfect day.Thanks are due to the organizers for doing a great job!
2017-08-07
Review paper published
Epigenetics is a field of ever increasing importance, not only for neural development but also for the understanding of many different diseases. Probably that's why the paper by Sokpor et al. in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience has already been viewed more than 500 times in the first few days.Congratulations!
2017-08-02
Manuscript accepted at Cerebral Cortex
Cerebral Cortex, which seems to have become our "home journal", has just accepted a manuscript with Xiaojuan Zhou as first author. It is entitled Subcellular targeting of VIP boutons in mouse barrel cortex is layer-dependent and not restricted to interneuronsCongratulations to everybody involved!
2017-07-20
Paper published
A fruitful collaboration has come to a fruitful end. The paper on the regulation of connectivity of OLM cells in the hippocampus by TRPV1 has just appeared at Nature Communications. Check out if you are interested in another example of GABAergic interneuron specificity:http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15878.pdf
2017-07-12
Paper published
We are very happy to announce that the review in Frontiers in Neuroanatomy has now been published and made available to the entire scientific community. Being reviewed by two eminent scientists in the field, it feels even better that it was well received by them and hopefully this will hold true for the rest of the readership, despite its provocative content.https://doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2017.00054
2017-06-21
Manuscript accepted at Frontiers
We are happy to announce that a review paper has just been accepted at Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. This insightful piece of science is part of a themed issue on cortical layershttp://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/5407/why-have-cortical-layers-what-is-the-function-of-layering-do-neurons-in-cortex-integrate-information
Ironically, Julien has clearly argued why layers as such (probably) have no function. Let's see how the community will appreciate it.
2017-06-06
New Publication
As the "Facebook for Scientists" (i.e. Research Gate ;-) already let me know during the weekend, our new review on GABAergic interneurons is availble online and read by many people. Please check out the following link if you are interested:
2017-05-24
SAVE the DATE for Barrels & Beyond
In one year from now, May 24/25 2018, we will host another conference on cortical function here in Göttingen, sponsored by the SFB 889. There will be several sessions on barrel cortex and beyond, covering all hot topics of current research. Confirmed speakers so far are Massimo Scanziani, Michael Brecht, Natalie Rochefort, Alison Barth and Solange Brown. Watch out for further information!
2017-05-15
Manuscript accepted at Neuroscience
I am happy to announce that a collaborative review on GABAergic interneurons (with Dirk Feldmeyer and colleagues) has just been accepted at Neuroscience. It will be part of a Special Issue "S1: Barrel Cortex", edited by Heiko Luhmann, Miguel Maravall and Christiaan der Kock. Looking very much forward to seeing it printed!
2017-03-27
Manuscript accepted at Nature Communications
Are hippocampal Martinotti cells different? At least in the manuscript of Hurtdo-Zavala et al., entitled
TRPV1 regulates excitatory innervation of OLM neurons in the hippocampus
we helped to show Camin Dean's group that they display interesting molecular and circuit mechanisms that so far haven't been detected in the neocortex.
2017-03-21
German Neuroscience Meeting starts tomorrow
The bi-annual German Neuroscience Meeting, always happening in Göttingen, starts tomorrow!Please check out the web site for further information;
We are looking very much forward to present our posters to colleagues from all over Germany but also from the rest of Europe. Welcome to Göttingen, friends.
2017-03-02
Press release by the UMC
A press release by the University Medical center features our recent Nature Communications publication. If you like to learn how our results can be explained to a broader audience, please check
2017-02-17
Successful grant applications!
Dr. Tran Tuoc just has been granted a project entitled „Chromatin and epigenetic regulation in neuronal migration“ by the Board of Schram-Stiftung. Congratulations!With this achievement he is also invited to speak at the symposium, presenting all grant winner:
http://schram-stiftung.de/pdf/schram_symposium_2017_poster_abstract_programm.pdf
2017-01-31
First publication in 2017
Mirko contributed to an interesting publication in Nature Medicine. Congratulations!If you want to learn about VIP neurons in addiction and schizophrenia, please check out
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.4274.html
2016-12-21
Christmas celebration 2016
No pictures but anyway big fun! Maybe we were just too busy with the good food at the restaurant "Abessina" or too baffled about all the more or less beautiful presents that were unveiled during our "Wichtel event". So, it was a perfect wrap-up of a nice and successful year in the lab.
2016-10-24
Manuscript accepted at Nature Communications
HURRAY!After a 13 months delivery period our latest scientific baby has been born,
named:
Parvalbumin- and Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide -expressing
neocortical interneurons impose differential inhibition on Martinotti
cells
It was brought to light at Nat Comm. A special thanks to Mirko and Martinfor making it happen!
2016-10-11
New Publication
That was fast now! PLOS already published our study, which is Open Access of course.RESEARCH ARTICLE
Morphological Characteristics of Electrophysiologically Characterized Layer Vb Pyramidal Cells in Rat Barrel CortexPLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0164004 October 5, 2016
2016-09-28
Manuscript accepted at PLoS ONE
A cumbersome submission and review process has come to an end after ca. 13 months! We just got accepted with a manuscript whose data was still from the "rat age" which has been terminated in Göttingen for us.PONE-D-15-41037R3
Morphological characteristics of electrophysiologically characterized layer Vb pyramidal cells in rat barrel cortex
2016-09-26
The Anatomische Gesellschaft conference was a big success
From Tuesday 20th to Saturday 24th of September the 111th meeting of the Anatomische Gesellschaft took place at the Center of Anatomy of the UMG. With roughly 400 participants it was more than a big success, it was a record breaker. From an Institute for Neuroanatomy perspective the most exciting happenings were the Anatomy Slam at the Lumiere, where Georg Hafner was the secret winner. Well done, Georg!The preconference workshop on teaching saw Mirko Witte giving his peers an insightful time, when he used the latest tricks in didactics to teach the teachers on the subject of voluntary movements. Thanks for a great lecture, Mirko.
On Saturday, Julien Guy gave a wonderful talk to show the fascinated colleagues that the first-ever two-photon-targeted patch-clamp recordings at German anatomical institutes happened in our lab. Thanks for keeping the faith, Julien!
And last but not least, Alvar Prönneke's Cerebral Cortex paper was elected "Paper of the Year" by the members of the Anatomische Gesellschaft. Congratulations, Alvar!
2016-09-15
Anatomy Slam and Conference
Next week two remarkable premieres will take place in Göttingen, in which the Institute for Neuroanatomy participates.On Tuesday, 20.09, the first Anatomy Slam is going to happen at the cinema Lumière. For details see press release:
From Wednesday to Saturday, the 111th meeting of the Anatomical Society will be hosted by the Center of Anatomy of the University Medicine Göttingen. Highlights from the neuroscience perspective will be the keynote lectures by Tobias Moser and Moritz Helmstädter. For details see full program:
http://anatomische-gesellschaft.de/a4/landing/index.html#Program
2016-09-11
New Publication
After a very long delay, caused by the sluggish response of Jiang et al., in the latest issue of Science our technical comment finally appeared. It is a community response spearheaded by Ed Callaway, Bernardo Rudy and Jochen Staiger that aims at showing the limitations of Jiang et al.'s work as published last year in Science.http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6304/1108.1
2016-09-10
http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006274
New publication
Christina, Huong, Joachim et al about BAF complexes in olfactory epithelium neurogenesis is online´ed in Plos Genetics.http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006274
2016-08-29
Manuscript accepted at Cerebral Cortex
After a tough but very fair review process, we got accepted at Cerebral Cortex with the second manuscript originating from Julien's PhD thesis. Congratulations!Thalamic input to clusters of layer 4 fated neurons in the reeler somatosensory cortex is monosynaptic but weaker than in wild-type.
Julien Guy, Alexandra Sachkova, Martin Möck, Mirko Witte, Robin J. Wagener, Jochen F.Staiger, Institut für Neuroanatomie
2016-08-22
New Publication
After an extensive review period, a joint manuscript with the Stieglitz-Lab at the IMTEK in Freiburg was successfully published in Biomed Microdevices. Well done Christina and Julien!Please check out:
Biomed Microdevices (2016) 18:81
DOI 10.1007/s10544-016-0106-7Intracortical polyimide electrodes with a bioresorbable coating
Christina Hassler1,2 & Julien Guy2,3 & Max Nietzschmann1,2 & Dennis T.T. Plachta1,4 &Jochen F. Staiger2,3 & Thomas Stieglitz1,2,5
2016-08-12
Another cover picture
As a reward for stunning images, our recent publication Wagener et al. also made it on the cover of the June issue of Cerebral Cortex. Please check out and enjoy!
2016-08-09
New website for the Barrels community
To ease the spread of information and interaction between contributing labs, the organizing committee of the BARRELS conferences (longest standing SfN Satellite meeting) has launched a new website. Please visit for the latest information on the upcoming meeting in Los Angeles November 10-11, 2016.http://www.vibrissa.org/
2016-06-27
Work outing - Betriebsausflug 2016
We are the lucky ones ..., in the middle of a rain and thunderstorm period, again, we have chosen the nicest day of the week to go climbing, do culture and heavy eating - all on one day! We visited a climbing park in the Habichtswald and the world heritage spot Kassel-Herkules Bergpark to see the fantastic Water festivals. It felt like a great trip to all participants thanks to the great organization of Mirko!
2016-06-21
DenkBAR - A public awareness event
At the pleasant location of the bar Apex, presented by the Kulturverein APEX, the CNMPB (Center for Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain; moderator: Heike Conradt) presented a public awareness event, in which Jochen Staiger and Sebastian Kügler talked about viral vectors as the new supertools in neuroscience. Despite strong competition with the European football championships the event was well visited and the audience was discussing lively on the many facets that were presented during the 2 talks.DenkBAR: „Viren machen nicht nur krank: (un)heimliche Helfer in der Hirnforschung“
http://www.med.uni-goettingen.de/de/content/presseinformationen/presseinformationen_24705.asp
2016-05-30
Barrel Conference 2016
The Barrels/BaCoFun Conference recently held in Amsterdam was a big success. More than 160 participants from more than 40 labs heard the latest on all kinds of cortical physiology, function but also anatomy and development. A very hot topic was VIP interneurons and their role in sensory-guided behaviors.For more information and photos see
http://barrelcortexfunction2016.com/images.html
2016-03-22
New publication
An "Extra view" by Huang et al. on epigenetic regulation by BAF complexes was published online at Cell Cycle.
Please check: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15384101.2016.1160984
2016-01-28
BigNeuron Project
BigNeuron hackathon at ICL London
2015-12-24
New Public Affairs Initiative
Jochen Staiger was elected as member of the public relation committee of the German Anatomical Society.
New initiatives are the "Paper of the month" and a "Science Slam" in Göttingen for the next year.
2015-12-15
Paper of the Month 12/2015
Our paper "Characterizing VIP Neurons in the Barrel Cortex of VIPcre/td Tomato Mice Reveals Layer-specific Differences" was selected as the first "paper of the month" in December by the German Anatomical Society.
2015-12-12
Christmas Celebration 2015
We were visiting the small but very nice Christmas market in our town Goettingen and then enjoyed the evening together at the "Omega" greek restaurant with little presents from the "Santa Claus".
2015-11-27
new publication
Thalamocortical Connections Drive Intracortical Activation of Functional Columns in the Mislaminated Reeler Somatosensory Cortex (accepted at Cerebral Cortex)
2015-11-25
new publication
Epigenetic regulation is crucial in cortical development. See our new open access publication.
http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/pdf/S2211-1247(15)01216-4.pdf
2015-11-17
Defence of PhD Julien Guy
Julien Guy succesfully defend in his final board examination including the presentation and defence of his PhD thesis.
2015-11-16
Barrels Conference 2016
Check out for the next Barrels conference that will take place in Amsterdam in May 2016. Tons of great science on all parts of the Cortex ahead, See http://barrelcortexfunction2016.com/Program.html
2015-11-12
Barrels 28 in Chicago
The Barrels Meeting, co-organized by Jochen Staiger, again was a big success. Approximately 90 scientists gathered at the School of Law of Northwestern University Chicago. Next to world-class science from the Barrel Cortex and beyond, the participants enjoyed the sizzling athmosphere of downtown Chicago with its spectacular high rises.
2015-10-17
Neuroscience 2015 - October 17-21
This year’s meeting will be held October 17-21 in the beautiful city of Chicago, Illinois, one of the top convention and meetings destinations in the United States.
2015-09-25
110th Anatomical society meeting
This year´s meeting will be held on September 23-25 in Würzburg. We will actively participate with 3 contributions.
2015-08-17
Defence of MD Bianca Scheuer
Bianca Scheuer succesfully defend in her final board examination including the presentation and defence of her medical doctor´s thesis.
2015-08-14
new publication
Characterizing VIP neurons in the barrel cortex of VIPcre/tdTomato mice reveals layer-specific differences (accepted at Cerebral Cortex)
2015-07-23
Work outing - Betriebsausflug 2015
We enjoyed this beautiful day at the "Hofgut Stammen" with: canoeing on the river Diemel, play volleyball or "Kubb" and of course a rich BBQ.
2015-06-22
Interneuron Conference 2015
In 2015 the EMBO Workshop "Cortical interneurons in health and desease" will be held in Costa d´En Blanes (Mallorca) from 22.-25. June.
2015-05-19
new publication
What types of neocortical GABAergic neurons do really exist? e-Neuroforum (Springer)
2015-05-01
new publication
A gradual depth-dependent change in connectivity features of supragranular pyramidal cells in rat barrel cortex (Brain Structure and Function)
2015-03-26
Cortical GABAergic neurons. In: Brain Mapping: An encyclopedic reference (Toga AW, ed), pp 69-80. Elsevier.
new publication
Cortical GABAergic neurons. In: Brain Mapping: An encyclopedic reference (Toga AW, ed), pp 69-80. Elsevier.
Job Offerings:
2017-08-01
Free PhD student position
Topic: Functional analysis of synaptic networks formed by cortical GABAergic interneurons
In the project we will analyze the inhibitory circuitry within the columnar structure of the somatosensory (barrel) cortex. GABA-releasing interneurons play a central role in different aspects of cortical information processing. We will use a broad spectrum of electrophysiological, histochemical and microscopic methods. The core methods are paired whole-cell patch-clamp recording, optogenetic stimulation and mapping of synaptic inputs of interneurons in acute brain slices. Afterwards the neurons will be stained and quantitatively reconstructed in 3D (see Walker et al., Nature Communications 2016; Proenneke et al., Cereb. Cortex 2015).
2017-07-01
Student Assistant for single cell reconstruction
We offer a position as a student assistant (10h or 20 h per week) to contribute to a DFG funded research project dealing with the classification of cortical neurons (De Felipe et al., Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2013). Your obligation is to reconstruct dye-filled neurons that were electrophysiologically characterized. For this purpose we use the software “Neurolucida”. Requirements are (i) a dedication to working at a microscope, (ii) three-dimensional thinking and (iii) computer knowledge (Windows). We prefer long-term commitments due to the rather long learning period.
MD-Projects:
2017-08-30
Schwerpunkt 5
Nachweis von GABAb-Rezeptoren auf GABAergen Interneurone im somatosensorischen Kortex mittels HybridisierungstechnikenTechniken:
- Fluoreszenz-in-situ-Hybridisierung/ Hairpin-Chain-Reactionan Hirnschnitten
- Mikroskopische Auswertung: Erstellen von virtuellen Schnitten und Zellzählung
- statistische Auswertung mit Statistica und SPSS
- Bildbearbeitung mit Adobe Photoshop
Dauer: 6-9 Monate
2017-08-30
Schwerpunkt 4
Elektrophysiologische Charakterisierung von GABA-Rezeptoren auf Martinotti-Zellen sowie auf präsynaptischen Terminalen auf Martinotti-Zellen in Schicht 5 des somatosensorischen Kortex
Techniken:
- Herstellen von akuten Hirnschnitten von Mäusen
- in vitro Patch-Clamp Ableitungen
- Pharmakologische Untersuchungen
- Aufnahme und Auswertung von elektrophysiologischen Daten mit Signal
- statistische Auswertung mit Sigma Plot und Statistica
- Bildbearbeitung mit Adobe-Programmen
Dauer: 6-9 Monate
2017-08-30
Schwerpunkt 3
Statistische Auswertung von elektrophysiologischen und morphologischen
Daten von GABAergen Interneuronen im somatosensorischen Kortex
Techniken:
- Auswertung von elektrophysiologischen Rohdaten
- Auswertung von morphologischen Daten
- statistische Auswertungen mit Sigma Plot und SPSS
- Bildbearbeitung mit Corel Draw und Adobe Photoshop
Dauer: 6 Monate
2017-08-10
Techniken:
Schwerpunkt 2
Nachweis der elektrophysiologischen Wirkung der Neuromodulatoren ACh, NA und Serotonin auf GABAerge Interneuronen im somatosensorischen KortexTechniken:
- Herstellen von akuten Hirnschnitten von Mäusen
- in vitro Patch-Clamp Ableitungen
- Pharmakologische Untersuchungen
- Aufnahme und Auswertung von elektrophysiologischen Daten mit CED Signal
- statistische Auswertung mit Sigma Plot und Statistica
- Bildbearbeitung mit Adobe-Programmen
Dauer: 6-9 Monate
2017-08-10
Techniken:
Dauer 6-9 Monate
Schwerpunkt 1
Schichtenspezifische Charakterisierung von Parvalbumin-exprimierenden Neuronen im somatosensorischen Kortex mittels Flip/Cre-MäusenTechniken:
- Perfusion von Mäusen
- Immunhistochemische Färbetechniken und Fluoreszenz In-Situ Hybridisierung von je 2-3 Schnitten von 4 Tieren
- Mikroskopische Auswertung: Erstellen von virtuellen Schnitten und Zellzählung
- statistische Auswertung mit Statistica und SPSS
- Bildbearbeitung mit Adobe Photoshop
Dauer 6-9 Monate
Master/Bachelor Projects:
2017-08-10