BrainLego: Engineering the Brain to Understand its Function

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Federico Calegari
• Subject Area: Developmental Neurobiology ; Developmental Biology ; Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572608937

The human brain is the most complex organ emerged in evolution. Notably, an increase in brain size during phylogeny is thought to underlie the superior cognitive abilities that characterize our species. As a result, fundamental questions in Neuroscience pertain to the mechanisms regulating brain size during development and function during adulthood. By combining a number of genetic tools for promoting the expansion of neural stem cells during embryonic development, this application aims to experimentally address the functional relationship between number of neurons and computational performance of our most complex organ. In BrainLego, a number of transgenic lines for the topical and temporarily controlled expansion of neural stem cells during development will be generated in order to increase the size of specific brain functional domain and, ultimately, study the effects of an increase in size of specific brain areas on their function, including motor, sensory and cognitive performance.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants