GRK 1960:  Neural Circuit Analysis on the Cellular and Subcellular Level

• Subject Area: Neurosciences
• Term: from 2014 to 2023
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 233886668

The causal explanation of nervous system activity and its alterations in disease or injury constitutes a fundamental goal of neuroscience research. Recent experimental advances in molecular, cellular and network neuroscience have allowed researchers to gain in-depth insights into many aspects of neuronal and nervous system function. This RTG was started focusing on four research areas strongly investigated and interacted on by Cologne research groups. These are “Control of Energy Homeostasis”, “Motor Control”, “Sensory Processing” and “Nervous System Disease”, the latter in context of any of the three previous themes. As explained in section 2, for the second funding period the RTG strives to fortify interconnection between the different research areas. The complexity of nervous systems, however, often forces researchers to concentrate on single, highly restricted aspects of its function. Unfortunately, such focused analysis often leads to a very narrow view and understanding of neuroscience among doctoral students. Within this RTG neuroscientists at the UoC therefore propose a graduate study programme that explicitly aims at providing outstanding students with a conceptually and methodologically excellent education in the neurosciences with particular emphasis on nervous system function in health and disease across the molecular, cel-lular and network level. A central feature of this programme will be the tandem supervision of doctoral candidates by two principal investigators from different fields, e.g. physiology and genetics, physiology and medicine, computational neurosciences and experimental neurosciences. Successful UoC graduates will be equipped with experimental and conceptual skills that extend across-level and across-system, thus enabling them to study nervous systems in the experimental preparation and with the technique best suited to the question at hand. The central goal of this study programme is to teach graduate students how to integrate data at multiple levels, from the molecular to the neural networks, to obtain a deeper understanding of nervous system function.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Ansgar Büschges
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Jens Claus Brüning; Professorin Dr. Silvia Daun; Professor Dr. Alexander Drzezga; Professor Dr. Gereon Rudolf Fink; Professor Dr. Matthias Hammerschmidt; Professor Dr. Kei Ito; Professor Dr. Peter Kloppenburg; Professorin Dr. Natalia Kononenko; Professorin Dr. Tatiana Korotkova; Professorin Dr. Sigrun Korsching; Professor Dr. Martin Paul Nawrot; Professorin Dr. Elena Irene Rugarli; Professorin Dr. Brunhilde Wirth