NeuroCure Talents Postdoc Program

Affiliation

Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Research Focus

Neurons are electrically excitable cells with characteristic shapes. These intricate shapes are necessary to receive, process, and propagate signals. The underlying cellular structure formation requires controlled organization and modulation of the cell membrane and the cytoskeleton, the filamentous scaffold of the cell. My research focuses on uncovering the role of biomolecular condensates in this complex process. Biomolecular condensates are liquid phases within the cell, comparable to oil droplets in water but at a much smaller scale and much lower surface tension. Just like water droplets bundling wet hair or adhering a piece of wet paper to glass, biomolecular condensates can exert forces that shape the cell. Moreover, condensates are reaction chambers that can organize the cytoskeleton or affect cellular signaling. I combine biophysics with cell biology to uncover such phenomena and their physiological function.

Affiliation

Research Focus

I am fascinated by how our brain controls movement. My PostDoc project investigates how kinematic features and neural oscillatory properties are related. More specifically, the project's goal is to link kinematic components like joint angles or velocities to, for example, simultaneous subthalamic local field potential activity. In doing so, I aim at identifying which neural features are associated with specific motor deficits in Parkinson's disease. The kinematic features measured in this project are far more nuanced than those typically assessed in clinical practice. On the one hand, they can potentially facilitate the development of robust, physiologically grounded biomarkers for adaptive deep brain stimulation. On the other hand, the kinematic measures will be used independently to identify kinematic phenotypes and to track longitudinal changes of motor performance, with the goal of expanding objective diagnostic tools for neurological diseases affecting the motor system.

Affiliation

Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Research Focus

Why do we sleep and when do we eat? More importantly what determines our decisions to choose one above the other. Further, how do these choices have cascading effects on learning and behavior. These questions remain as one of the biggest mysteries of neurobiology. Several studies have shown the effects of sleep deprivation: decreased vigilance, lack of attention or memory deficits and effects of hunger: altered learning strategies, reduced risk aversiveness, critically suppression of sleep to pursue feeding. However, the cross modulation effects of sleep on hunger and vice versa have not been fully understood. Furthermore, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease etc. are often accompanied by sleep deficits and issues related to malnutrition, such as loss of appetite and unintentional weight loss. This puts the questions of sleep and its interaction with hunger and their combined effects on memory at a critical scientific and societal crossroad. Here, I will use the fruit fly – Drosophila melanogaster to study these interactions of sleep & hunger and its relation to memory.

Affiliation

Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Research Focus

Affiliation

Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Research Focus

Cells sense and respond to their environment through complex signaling pathways. Those are typically initiated by receptor activation at the plasma membrane and can lead to the localized production of signaling lipids. To terminate signaling and reset the plasma membrane for the next stimulation, those signaling lipids must subsequently be recycled and lipid homeostasis restored. This process requires the transfer of lipids between cellular membranes, which is thought to be mediated by lipid transfer proteins. Here, we will use mass spectrometry–based approaches to investigate how those transporters regulate local lipid availability and to define their roles in neuronal physiology.