Summer Network Meeting 2022: Recounter of the Lab Visits

Kristin Tessmar-Raible introduced us to her world: the research on chronobiology. She introduced us to plenty of bristle worms and fish and showed us the setup they use to simulate naturalistic day and night cycles for their marine participants. The discoveries at her lab about the role of particular proteins in regulating circadian clocks in midges raise intriguing questions about how the same proteins - which are abundant in the human brain - may work to change our internal clocks.

Another highlight was a Fish VR setup which is currently not used too much. Perhaps you would like to use it?

This Fish VR setup was developed in part by Kristin Tessmar-Raible. The system allows the simulation of more complex naturalistic environments while recording behavioral data, allowing researchers to observe differences in behavior that would be hard to detect otherwise. We compiled further information here: https://cogsci.univie.ac.at/news/detail/news/fish-virtual-reality-laboratory

If you are interested in using this system for your research, please contact Kristin Tessmar-Raible: kristin.tessmar@mfpl.ac.at 

Manuel Zimmer and his Team showed us around their state-of-the-art microscopy room, where behavioral and neuroimaging experiments of different kinds happen.

Multiple c. elegans are recorded and tracked as they live in controlled environments. At larger magnifications, the whole nervous system of c. elegans is visible in action, and after some magic, each neuron can be colored beautifully.

Understanding the entire nervous system of an organism like c. elegans might help us understand the nervous systems of more complex organisms better a couple of years and papers down the line: very exciting!

Please find some Impressions of the Network Meeting and Lab Visits below: