Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Marlene Bartos, who has been awarded a Reinhart Koselleck Project Grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to study “The role of the inputs and outputs of the dentate gyrus in the formation of memory traces and the control of behavior”.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) runs the Reinhart Koselleck Program to back only those researchers who have demonstrated exceptional achievements in their fields. This funding scheme provides them with the freedom to undertake pioneering projects that carry a constructive level of risk, encouraging courage and unconventional thinking. Named after Reinhart Koselleck, a leading German historian of the twentieth century renowned for his role in shaping modern social history and for his independent, questioning mindset, the program honors his legacy following his death in 2006.

IN-CODE hosted Dr. Matthias Mayer from ysa (http://www.youngscientistsacademy.com/) for a great 2-days Scientific Communication workshop at IMBIT, Freiburg.

Our IN-CODE Female Scientist Retreat gathered neuroscientists for workshops, talks and discussions at the Kloster Frauenberg in Fulda and its serene garden. Many thanks to our speakers Silvia Viana da Silva, Silvana Valtcheva, Marlene Bartos, SeongHee Cho and Rahel Ehret for sharing knowledge and inspiration!

A film crew from ZDF recently visited our lab to document the work of Marlene Bartos and her team on memory research focusing on interneurons.

The footage will be featured in an upcoming episode of the 3sat science program nano, offering viewers an inside look at our experiments and scientific insights. The episode is currently in production and will be broadcast soon.

https://www.3sat.de/wissen/nano.

Congrats to Rina Patel, PhD student in Silvia Viana da Silvas lab (B02). She presented at the NWG on the section “Breaking News” and received the 2nd prize for “Best Talk” for “Optogenetic control of mitochondria of PV+ interneurons alters CA1 function”.

Prof. Dr. Daniel Mertens presented in-depth knowledge on AI in 5 modules.

Next Level Productivity in Science using AI Assistants.

More infos here: https://www.schillermertens.de/

Module 1: Foundations of AI for Scientific Research

Module 2: Advanced Scientific Writing and Storytelling

Module 3: Objectifying Exploratory Data Analysis and Intuitive Visualization

Module 4: Networking, Collaboration, and Negotiation using Data-Protected
Local LLMs

Module 5: Decision-Making, Interviewing and Coding for Beginners with
LLMs

The Inhibition in the CNS GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages.

The 2025 GRC Inhibition in the CNS will explore how inhibition shapes neural circuits in health and disease—spanning interneuron identity, synapse organization, sensory and memory pathways, computational dynamics, adult neurogenesis across models, and neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

The Spring Hippocampal Research Conference is devoted to all aspects of hippocampal structure and function, and its malfunction in neurological and psychiatric disorders. ​It has been held every other year since 1988. 

Location
CCO Auditorium
Virchowweg 4 | Berlin

–

Please join us for the lecture, either in person or via Zoom.

Cortical GABAergic interneurons (INs) exhibit remarkable diversity, enabling finely tuned inhibitory control of cortical neural circuits. These INs primarily receive input through dendritic synapses. Yet, whether and how dendritic processing shapes their distinct functional roles remains unclear. In this last years we obtained evidence that two major cortical IN subtypes—somatostatin-expressing (SST) and parvalbumin-expressing (PV) interneurons—exhibit fundamentally different strategies to distribute and integrate synaptic inputs along their dendrites. SST-INs display NMDAR-dependent supralinear integration and a uniform distribution of excitatory synapses. In contrast, PV-INs show sublinear integration and a higher density of synapses on proximal dendrites, with low NMDAR expression. I will present experimental as well as modeling data suggesting that while both dendritic integration strategies enhance effective synaptic efficacy in thin dendrites, they enable the extraction of distinct temporal features from input dynamics. Overall, our findings highlight how specialized dendritic processing across interneuron subtypes critically shapes the strength and timing of cortical inhibition.

During the 2nd Engrams and Ensembles Conference at Trinity College Dublin in May 2025, the Viana da Silva and Haberl labs presented their findings on hippocampal engram recruitment by sharp-wave ripples. Their talks sparked lively discussions with leading experts and led to new collaborations with computational neuroscientists modeling the inhibitory engram.

This course is a collaborative effort between the Neuroanatomical Departments of the University of Basel and the University of Freiburg. Many graduate students do their thesis projects in the field of Neuroscience, some even in close relation to human neurological diseases. As most of the graduate students do not have a training in human medicine they were never exposed to human neuroanatomy. The aim of this course is to give these students an opportunity to study human anatomy in a lab course with human specimens and learn about the structures of the human brain which are mostly affected by neurological diseases. The course offers an opportunity to learn human neuroanatomy in a group of graduate students from both the University of Basel and the University of Freiburg.

26.-29.3.2025 Göttingen

More infos here: https://www.nwg-goettingen.de/2025/default.asp?id=0

“Dendritic Inhibition – Role in Network Dynamics, Memory and Behavior”

presentations by
Marlene Bartos, Johannes Letzkus, Matthew Larkum and Panayiota Poirazi.

———

“Building blocks of the brain: Insights into CNS circuits and ultrastructure”

organized by
Matthias Haberl (Charité, Berlin, Germany) and
Martina Schifferer (DNZE, Munich, Germany).

BrainLinks-BrainTools und NEXUS Experiments invite

Donnerstag, 13.03.2025

5:30 pm – 9:00 pm

IMBIT-Gebäude, Campus Flugplatz

background: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2024.06.019

„BrAInWorlds: Die Welt in unserem Kopf“ ist eine öffentliche Veranstaltung im Rahmen der Brain Awareness Week, einer internationalen Initiative der Dana Foundation. Organisiert wird die Veranstaltung von NEXUS Experiments, der Plattform für Wissenschaftsvermittlung und partizipative Forschung am Zentrum BrainLinks-BrainTools der Universität Freiburg.

We are pleased to announce that four outstanding researchers have been awarded fellowships of 15.000 Euro each as part of the IN-CODE initiative. These awards recognize the exceptional quality and potential impact of their proposed research projects. The following fellows and their respective projects have been selected for this honor:

Chotima Böttcher: Regional heterogeneity of human interneurons

Claudia Böhm: The role of GABAergic interneuroons in the lasting impact of early life adversity

Antje Kilias: Enhancer-mediated chemogenetic activation of interneurons in the medial septum as a potential anti-epileptic stimulation (EMStim)

Anna Schröder: Mapping neuronal diversity in the inhibitory zona incerta using spatial transcriptomics

Dr. Matthias Haberl dives into the fascinating intersections between artificial intelligence and neuroscience in their latest piece for the NWG Journal Neuroforum. Discover the insights and ideas on page 19—link below.

https://nwg-info.de/sites/nwg-info.de/files/media/pdf/neuroforum/Neuroforum_02-2024.pdf

Gamze Güney and Dr. Svenja Steinfelder (Poulet lab) captivated young minds at the Heinrich-Schliemann-Gymnasium and Kurt-Tucholsky-Oberschule in Berlin, sharing the wonders of their science (Dec 2024 & Jan 2025). They also illuminated their research for a wide audience at the Planetarium Berlin, inspiring curiosity  for science in the community (Dec 2024).

https://www.mdc-berlin.de/de/news/events/svenja-steinfelder-gamze-guney-kalter-schnee-heisse-schokolade-wie-unser-korper

In October 2024, Prof. Bartos undertook a one-month sabbatical in Boston to deepen collaborations with researchers known for their outstanding contribution in areas of interneuron development, interneuron-glia interactions, and the structural and functional dynamics of cortical interneurons. At Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brandeis University, Prof. Bartos met with Prof. Gina Turringano, Prof. Elly Nevidi, Prof. Eve Marder and Prof. Amar Sahay (to name a few) sharing insights on recent advancements in the field and cutting-edge methodologies. Prof. Bartos also attended the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Chicago.

Dr. Anna Schroeder, a neuroscientist and postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Dr. Johannes Letzkus at the Institute of Physiology, Dept. I, was awarded an ERC starting grant for her project CERTASTATES. In this project, she will investigate how internal states drive behavioral flexibility with a focus on the neural circuits of the subthalamic zona incerta. Motivated by the fact that this little studied brain region is one of few established targets for deep brain stimulation in humans, the project also aims to explore how clinically-applied neuromodulation can transform state-driven computations with the aim to develop new therapeutic directions for psychiatric disease. To achieve these goals, Dr. Schroeder will employ cutting-edge molecular, cellular and circuit-level technologies in mouse models together with diverse behavioral paradigms and advanced machine learning techniques. CERTASTATES will be carried out at the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich, where, as of April 2025, Dr. Schroeder will be a tenure-track W2 Professor of Systemic Neuroscience.

For the official ERC press releases, click here and here.

The METIS network provides advice on how to promote gender equality, diversity and family friendliness in academic work environments in accordance to DFG guidelines.

You can browse the METIS page to see what other research associations did in terms of Gender and Diversity measures and approach the IN-CODE Gender and Diversity (GD) representatives with your inquiry.

METIS: https://www.metis.hu-berlin.de/