We are the CRC 1436

Dr. Samia Afzal

Samia Afzal has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg since January 2023. Previously, she performed her PhD studies in molecular biomedicine at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, where she analyzed experience-dependent macroscopic brain plasticity using different experimental animal approaches. Currently, she is investigating factors that can improve/impair cognitive flexibility by focusing on NMDA receptor signalling in the prefrontal cortex as part of project A01 (Research Area A) in the SFB. Her main research interest is to use cell biological, molecular and proteomic tools in combination with behavioral assessment of cognitive flexibility in mice to understand the role of the NMDA receptor signalling complex in cognitive flexibility.

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Anne Albrecht

Anne Albrecht is the head of the Department of Neuroanatomy at the Institute of Anatomy at the Otto-von-Guericke University. Her research group studies the functional neuroanatomy of emotional memory and stress adaptation circuits. She also teaches anatomy to 1st and 2nd year medical students.

The focus of her research is on the investigation of GABAergic interneurons and neuropeptides in learning, memory and stress processing in rodent models. To analyze the role of e.g. orexin in circuits of memory formation, her group uses neuronal tracing, high-resolution methods for expression analysis (RNAScope, laser-assisted microdissection & qPCR) as well as viral and pharmacological interventions in conjunction with behavioral analysis in mice and structural and molecular studies in cell and tissue cultures.

Dr. Stepan Aleshin

I am a postdoc in the molecular neuroplasticity group at DZNE, Magdeburg. I graduated in virology (MSc) and molecular biology (PhD). Over the course of my scientific career, I have been interested in behavioural experiments and their modelling, neurodegenerative diseases and integrative/theoretical neuroscience. In addition to my scientific activities, my interests also extend to travelling and orienteering.

Dr. Kevin Allen

Kevin Allen is a group leader at the Department of Clinical Neurobiology of the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University and DKFZ Heidelberg. His research aims at understanding how the brain orchestrates navigation. His research group combines electrophysiological recordings, optogenetics, and behavioral approaches in mice to reveal the role of different networks or cell populations in navigation. 

Dr. Maria Andres-Alonso

Dr. rer. nat Maria Andres-Alonso obtained her degree in Biology at the University of Navarre, Spain. After obtaining her master´s degree in Neuroscience at University College London, UK, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Anna Fejtova and Dr. Eckart Gundelfinger the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) where she performed her doctoral studies within a Marie Curie ITN programme coordinated by Dr. Michael Kreutz. She is currently working as a senior post-doctoral researcher in the research group Neuroplasticity leaded by Dr. Michael Kreutz at LIN. Her research interests are directed towards understanding the role degradative organelles at synaptic sites and function, and the contribution of microsecretory systems in maintaining proteostasis of synaptic membrane proteins.

Prof. Dr. med. Frank Angenstein

Since 2012 I am head of the research group “Functional Neuroimaging” at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Magdeburg. My work focuses on the search for the neurophysiological basis of fMRI imaging and how different modulatory transmitter systems influence the interaction of the hippocampus with individual cortical and subcortical brain structures under normal and pathological conditions. To address this, individual brain structures are selectively activated by electrical, optogenetic, or chemogenetic stimulation, and the resulting neuronal responses are simultaneously measured both directly by in vivo electrophysiological recordings in the hippocampus and indirectly in the whole brain by fMRI measurements.

Dr. Erika Atucha

coming soon

Norman Aye

coming soon

Dr. Elena Azañón

Elena Azañón studied Psychology at the University of Barcelona. After her doctoral thesis with Salvador Soto-Faraco, she was granted a Marie Curie Fellowship to work at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (University College London) in the group of Patrick Haggard (2012-2014). After completing her first postdoctoral position, she continued her scientific work at Birkbeck University London as a senior postdoc in the working group of Matthew Longo (2014-2018). In 2018, she joined the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, with a Dorothea Erxleben Visiting Professorship. She is currently leading the Somatosensory and Body Perception Lab at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology and at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg as a Junior Research leader.

Dr. Kathrin Baldauf

coming soon

Lara Chirich Barreira

I am a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Anatomy. I am interested in the mechanisms that allow cognitive flexibility to incorporate and integrate environmental information into learning and memory. Within the framework of the A07 project, I study how circadian rhythms modulate cognitive functions. I am focused on researching how orexinergic neurons modulate the wakefulness system. For this purpose, I am using circadian disturbances, pharmacological tools, viral interventions, memory tests, and behavioral tasks.

Dr. Mandy Bartsch

I am working as a postdoc in the research group of Prof. Jens-Max Hopf at the LIN and I am particularly interested in human attention and perception as well as science communication. To track the spatiotemporal dynamics of the cortical processes underlying attention allocation, I measure EEG and MEG in healthy participants, while they perform tasks on the screen. 

Tugce Belge

coming soon

Dr. Matthew Betts

Matthew is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND) located at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (OVGU). He leads a research program that aims to understand how structural changes to subcortical neuromodulatory systems relate to cognitive decline in aging and to the clinical and pathological manifestations of neurodegenerative diseases. This incorporates a combination of novel structural MR imaging techniques using ultra high-field MRI, PET imaging, CSF biomarkers and behavioural tasks. He is the cofounder of the Locus Coeruleus imaging meeting that brings together clinicians, neuropathologists, physicists and cognitive neuroscientists to try to better understand the role of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus in neurodegenerative diseases.

Nora Broda

coming soon

Prof. Dr. Eike Budinger

Eike Budinger studied biology at the Humboldt University in Berlin with a focus on zoology, behavioural biology and microbiology and then at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) Magdeburg in the “Acoustics, Learning and Language” department with Prof. Henning Scheich where he studied the functional organization of the auditory cortex. Since then, he has been a research scientist at the LIN studying acoustics, learning, and systems physiology as well as at the Medical Faculty of the Otto von Guericke University (OvGU) Magdeburg. He has headed the “Functional Neuroanatomy” project group since 2005 and the 9.4 Tesla “Small Animal MRI Laboratory” since 2017. He habilitated in 2015 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the OvGU and received the title of adjunct professor in 2021.

Luca Budinger

coming soon

Julia Buescher

I am a PhD student at the Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology and focused on behavioral neuroscience. Within the framework of project B01, I study how the network between hippocampus and prefrontal cortex influences the ability to recognize objects in dependence of their location. For this purpose, I am interested in interindividual differences in mice performing in an object-in-place task and examining the underlying differences in the neurocognitive circuit.

Dr. Michaela Butryn

coming soon

Dr. Gürsel Caliskan

I have been studying cellular and circuit-level changes in animal models of fear and anxiety via combining electrophysiology, behaviour and pharmacogenetics (DREADDs). My current research focuses on identification of physiological and pathological alterations in the hippocampal activity patterns and their relation to modulation of hippocampal engrams in animal models of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. I am also interested in the impact of gut microbiota on hippocampal plasticity and oscillations.

Xinyun Che

Xinyun Che studied Biological Science at China Agriculture University during her undergraduate period. In 2019, she received her Master degree in Biotechnology at the University of Queensland. Before she starts her PhD study at Leibniz-Institut für Neurobiologie in Magdeburg in 2021, she worked as a research technician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences for one year.

Yi Chen

coming soon

Prof. Dr. Radoslaw Martin Cichy

Radek Cichy is a cognitive scientist and head of the Neural Dynamics of Visual Cognition Group at the Freie Universität Berlin. His group investigates how the human brain translates the constant flow of photons hitting the retina into percept of the world that is conscious and ordered in objects. For this the group combines methodology from different disciplines: behavioral measures from psychology, brain measurements from neuroscience, and machine learning as well as connectionist modeling from computer science. Radek Cichy is recipient of the Emmy Noether Award and the ERC Starting Grant. He is the director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Berlin at FUB.

Dr. Ugur Cikrikcili

Ugur Cikrikcili graduated from Istanbul University and completed his psychiatry residency at the same institution. He has been a member of several multidisciplinary studies and international teamworks. His clinical work focuses are Neuropsychiatry, Geriatric Psychiatry and Dynamic Psychotherapies.

Dennis Dalügge

coming soon

Margarita Darna

Margarita is a PhD Candidate at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology. She has a background in neurobiology and is interested in human cognition. In her research, she uses non-invasive methods, such as Electroencephalography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, to study human behaviour. She also applies computational methods to predict which factors may play a role in one’s cognition.

Anwesha Das

I am a doctoral researcher working in the groups of Elena Azañón and Max-Philipp Stenner, at Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg. Prior starting my PhD in September 2021, I pursued my master’s in neuroscience from National Brain Research Centre, in India. At SFB1436, I am a part of the sub-project C03 and we are investigating the cognitive resources associated with motor skill learning in healthy humans. We use behavioural measurements and magnetoencephalography (MEG) data for answering our research questions.magnetoencephalography (MEG) data for answering our research questions.

Dr. Carine De Sousa

Carine De Sousa is a postdoctoral researcher since August 2021 in the team of Prof. Dr. Kristine Krug at OVGU. She obtained her PhD in neuroscience at the University of Lyon in France. Her thesis topic was the local neural encoding of higher cognitive functions using electrophysiological recordings. Her current research focuses on larger-scale neural networks to understand the neural mechanisms of decision-making using neuroimaging and brain stimulation.

Lion David Deger 

coming soon

Dr. Yunus Demiray

coming soon

Prof. Dr. Daniela Dieterich

Daniela C. Dieterich is an expert addressing the role of synaptic protein homeostasis regulation through the coordinated control of translation and degradation. She has developed and applied cutting-edge technologies involving ‘click-chemistry’ that provide the consortium with tools to address dynamic changes in these processes with unprecedented temporal and cellular resolution, ultimately allowing the cell-selective identification of neuronal and glial access points.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Dityatev

Alexander Dityatev is the head of the Molecular Neuroplasticity group at the DZNE Magdeburg. He runs a research program on the role of neural extracellular matrix in neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, depression and schizophrenia. His major expertise is in extracellular matrix biology, synaptic plasticity and synaptogenesis, electrophysiology, behavioral analysis and two-photon imaging in awake mice.  He is serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Cellular Microenvironment section in Cells.

Juliane Döhler

I am a doctoral student with educational background in  psychology (M.Sc.) and media technology (Dipl.-Ing.). Fascinated by the  ability of the human brain to continuously adapt to change and  restructure itself even in older age, I am excited by the  question of how human brain plasticity is linked to behavior. My research interests include brain plasticity in the context of healthy aging and pathological conditions, as well as embodiment and its role for resilience. During my PhD, I study the microstructural architecture of body maps in younger and older adults using high-resolution MRI at 7 Tesla. As a doctoral researcher and clinical  psychologist, I aim to transfer latest neuroscientific results into clinical practice.

Bianca Dupré

Bianca Dupré is part of the coordination team of the Collaborative Research Center 1436. She supports the projects in all administrative matters and is the central contact person for financial questions in the CRC.

Archana Durairaja

I obtained my bachelors in the field of Bioengineering in India and have a masters in Integrative neuroscience from OvGU. Currently, I am a PhD-student at the department of neuropharmacology of emotional systems, Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology, OvGU, Magdeburg under the supervision of Prof. Markus Fendt. For my PhD, I am investigating the sexually dimorphic role of orexin system in regulating cognitive flexibility, attention and impulsivity in neuropsychiatric disorders.  I’m using behavioural paradigms such as attentional set shifting task to assess cognitive flexibility and an automated touch screen system to perform visual discrimination and 5-choice serial reaction time task to assess attention and impulsivity.

Dr. Stefan Dürschmid

Stefan Dürschmid received a diploma in Education (2005) and Psychology (2009). In 2013 he finished his PhD and was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley (2013-2014). Stefan Dürschmid is head of the research group “sensory learning and predictions“ and submit his Habilitationsschrift in 2021 at the Otto-von-Guericke Universität.

Julius Duske

I’m a medicine student at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg. Since October 2022, I am pausing my studies, to work on my MD thesis at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology. As a part of project A01 at CRC1436, I explore the influence that circadian rhythm disturbances have on cognitive flexibility. Because the neuropeptide orexin plays an important role in regulating sleep-wake cycle and its brain levels are affected by disruptions of it, I’m interested whether an orexinergic modulation on chronic jetlag-induced mice can decrease their deficits in cognitive flexibility.

Prof. Dr. med. Emrah Düzel

Emrah Düzel has trained as a neurologist in Germany (in Bonn and Magdeburg). He is working as a cognitive neurologist on the functional anatomy of human episodic memory networks, neuromodulatory circuits, their clinical and mechanistic alterations in aging and neurodegeneration and their scope for plasticity. He leads the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research and Memory Clinic at the OvG University Magdeburg. As speaker of the Magdeburg site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE, Helmholtz Society), he supports the implementation and analysis of imaging and cognition measures for early Alzheimer’s disease. He is also a part time group leader at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Univ. College London, a fellow of the Max-Planck School of Cognition and co-founder of the digital health start-up neotiv. Within the newly founded German Network of Memory Clinics, he coordinates a working group on Digital Health and Telemedicine.

Dr. Thomas Endres

coming soon

Anna-Maria Felßberg

coming soon

Prof. Dr. Markus Fendt

Markus Fendt is head of a research group at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxiology, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. The group’s research focuses on the neuropharmacological basis of emotional and cognitive brain systems with special interest in behavioral endophenotypes of neuropsychiatric disorders. To this end, various behavioral paradigms are used in combination with molecular and immunohistochemical analyses as well as systemic and local pharmacological and chemogenetic manipulations in wildtype and genetically modified laboratory rodents.

Marzieh Fereidouni

coming soon

Larissa Fischer

Larissa Fischer is a research assistant in the Z03 project. She will receive her Master’s degree in psychology with a focus on cognitive neuroscience at the end of 2022. She studied at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg and spent a semester abroad at the University of Cambridge. She is interested in learning and memory processes and how they change with age.

Erelle Fuchs

coming soon

Hannah Gapp

coming soon

Dr. Berta Garcia Garcia

Berta Garcia-Garcia is a nuclear medicine physician. During Medical School, she was recruited by the Anatomy, Histology, and Neuroscience Department at the Autonomous University of Madrid to initiate herself on the most used methodological procedures in medical research, leading to a five year-long cooperation agreement focused on ex vivo brain mapping. She graduated later as a medicine specialist at the Nuclear Medicine Department in Pamplona (Spain), whose latest cyclotron-related techniques let her get acquainted with radioactive-based in vivo brain assessment. Her current work takes place at the DZNE and the Universitätsklinikum Magdeburg. Among others, she collaborates actively in many research projects mainly with the Multimodal Neuroimaging and the Mixed Cerebral Pathology and Cognitive Ageing research groups while performing PET/MR studies with various radiotracers, acting as a radiation protection officer as well. Her research work is subspecialized in evaluating brain metabolism spectrum from normal ageing to risk stages of Alzheimer’s Disease towards Alzheimer’s Disease, and in the analysis of cerebral vascularization regarding cognitive status. Due to the potential implications of the latter, she is currently basing her doctoral dissertation on it for the attainment of the Dr. med. degree in Germany.

Dr. Wenzel Glanz

Wenzel Glanz trained as a neurologist in Magdeburg, Germany. He works as a senior physician in the memory clinic, which is established as a cooperation between the Magdeburg site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE, Helmholtz Society) and the University Clinic for Neurology Magdeburg. As part of this activity, the focus is not only on patient care, but also on the recruitment of subjects for studies and the supervision of the studies as a study doctor also for the SFB 1436, especially the Z03 project. Wenzel Glanz provides advice on clinical aspects in the development of study designs.

Dr. Guilherme Gomes

I am a Brazilian neuroscientist member of the Research Group Neuroplasticity (LIN). I am interested on the molecular players that give rise to complex behaviors., and over the past 10 years I have been focusing on how NMDAR signaling controls the expression of plasticity-related genes, both in health and disease. As a member of the CRC1436 I am part of project A02, A04 and Z01, and my goal is to provide state-of-the-art methods for engram detection and manipulation to the CRC community

Dr. Hendrik Griep

coming soon

Dr. Katarzyna Grochowska

Dr. rer. nat Katarzyna M. Grochowska obtained her M.Sc. degree in Biotechnology at Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. Afterward, she performed her PhD studies at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) within a Marie Sklodowska-Curie ITN Programme under the supervision of Dr. Michael Kreutz. During her PhD research, she focused on the molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, she studies the mechanisms of neurodegeneration, especially in the context of excitation-transcription coupling, endolysosomal degradative pathway, and neuroinflammatory signaling.

Lasse Güldener

I am a Doctoral student in the Pollmann Lab of experimental Psychology at OvGU. In my work I focus on the brain mechanisms controlling visual attention in humans. In my first years of the Phd I have been investigating the role of the human anterior prefrontal cortex during the unconscious reallocation of attention. In this SFB Project my supervisor and I now work in a collaboration with Max Happel and Parthiban Saravanakumar on the role of the anterior prefrontal cortex in the exploration-exploitation dilemma where we compare behavioral and fMRI data of human participants with gerbils’ behavioral and multichannel recording electrode data.

Guruprasath Gurusamy

Guru obtained his Bachelor of Technology in Bioengineering from Sastra University and his Master of Technology in Biomedical Engineering from SRM University, Tamil Nadu, India. He is currently working with Dr Matthew Betts in CRC1436, IKND, to understand the contribution of the noradrenergic system to neural resources in aging by modulating the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system (LC-NA) through physical exercise and cognitive intervention. He is interested in exploring the neural, cognitive and behavioural markers of ageing and dementia using physiological, psychophysical and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) measures.

Prof. Dr. Dorothea Hämmerer

Dorothea Hämmerer studied psychology at the University of Trier, the University of Paris X Nanterre and the University of Freiburg. Starting with her doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in 2006, she used cognitive neuroscientific methods to understand why we have different cognitive abilities at different ages. Dorothea Hämmerer’s post-doc studies took her to the Technical University of Dresden, the University College London (Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Welcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging) and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Magdeburg. They have enabled her to expand her skills in magnetic resonance imaging and in the physiological and cognitive assessment of aging and dementia. She still maintains close collaborative relationships with the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience in London and the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience. In her research, Dorothea Hämmerer tries to understand how age differences in the brain, especially in neuromodulatory systems, affect age differences in cognitive functions, especially attention control, decision-making and memory across the lifespan. Together with her collaboration partners, she is developing cognitive paradigms and non-invasive imaging methods that can capture correlates of individual neuromodulatory systems (especially dopamine and noradrenaline) in a more targeted manner. For reasons that are still unknown, neuromodulatory systems are particularly vulnerable in old age and are among the earliest and most severely affected brain regions in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s dementia. In her current research, Prof. Hämmerer focuses in particular on exploring the noradrenergic locus coeruleus and uses structural and functional imaging methods to map the earliest cognitive and neurophysiological changes in neurodegenerative diseases. She is co-founder of the Locus Coeruleus Imaging Meeting Magdeburg, which brings together clinicians, animal researchers, physicists and cognitive neuroscientists to try to better understand the role of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus in neurodegenerative diseases. Her research was recognized with the Brenda Milner Award and a Senior Research Fellowship from Alzheimer Research UK.

Prof. Dr. Michael Hanke

Michael Hanke is the head of the Psychoinformatics team at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine – Brain and Behaviour (INM-7) at the Jülich Research Centre, where he has developed research software and computational methodology for machine learning-based analysis and functional alignment of neuroimaging data. He will assist with the technical implementation of computational pipelines and their dissemination.

Prof. Dr. Max Happel

Max Happel is the head of the CortXplorer Research Group at the Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg and a professor for physiology at the MSB Medical School Berlin. His research group focusses on in vivo circuit physiology in rodents during learning, memory and decision making. 

Dr. Dayana Hayek

coming soon

Dr. Julia Henschke

Julia Henschke is Postdoc at the  Neural Circuits & Network Dynamics research group at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. She studied biosystems engineering and neuroscience and completed her PhD at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg. Her research interest focuses on the functional anatomy of sensory-motor systems using a combination of two-photon imaging and neuroanatomical techniques.

Dr. Cornelia Hesse

In recent years, the focus of my research was and still is the investigation and visualisation of neuronal network activity in the brain of rodents using electrophysiology, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, 4.7T / 9.4T animal MRI-scanner) and cyclic voltammetry. I was particularly interested how the release of neuromodulators (such as dopamine, noradrenaline, serotonin, adenosine) effect active neuronal networks.

Anne Hochkeppler

coming soon

Prof. Dr. med. Jens-Max Hopf

Jens- Max Hopf is the head of the Cognitive Neurophysiology Group and chair for Cognitive Neurophysiology at the medical faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. He is also head of the guest-research group visual attention at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg. His research focuses on mechanism underlying attentional selection in human visual cortex using non-invasive neuroimaging methods, including electromagnetic brain recordings (MEG/EEG) and functional MRI.

Panagiotis Iliopoulos

LorPhD Student at the University Klinik of Magdeburg (supervisors: Prof. Emrah Düzel, Prof. Radoslaw Cichy). I completed my M.Sc. studies in Cognitive Neuroscience at the LMU Munich University with a focus on neuroimaging, human memory, and cognitive control. I am intrigued by how our brain supports memory, including key areas in the medial temporal lobe and beyond, and how this changes due to aging, disease, and interventions such as cognitive training.

Dr. Enise I. Incesoy

Enise Incesoy is a clinician scientist at the IKND as part of Z03 subproject. After graduating from the Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey, she worked first as a guest scientist at the MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, and then in the memory clinic at Charité in Berlin, both as a medical doctor and research assistant. Her interest in self-awareness, its loss in psychiatric diseases, and its neural correlates in the brain allowed her to create her project related to Alzheimer’s disease for her (german) doctoral dissertation. This project, through applying neuroimaging methods, also facilitated her collaboration with DZNE Magdeburg. Since November 2020 she has been working at IKND/DZNE as well as at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in the University Clinic Magdeburg as a psychiatric trainee. Currently, her work is focused on awareness changes in the Alzheimer’s continuum, applying both subjective (in a trialogue) and objective (metacognition-confidence rating) methods, and using rsfMRI connectivity analysis. Moreover, she’s seeing patients as well as holding responsibilities as a study doctor at the memory clinic and at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. She has a continued academic interest in (micro-)phenomenology and aims to study remembering, recalling, and forgetting in the elderly individual through the methodological study of subjective experience.

Dr. Solveig Jandke

Since my doctorate in neuroscience, I am working as a postdoc in the Department of Neurology at the OvGU Magdeburg in the field of human/experimental cerebral small vessel disease. We investigate the connection of blood-brain-barrier disruption/vascular wall damage/enlarged perivascular spaces with extracellular matrix changes, neurovascular unit damage and associated (perivascular) inflammation. Additionally, we want to uncover which microvascular reserve mechanisms play a role in the aging process and the accelerated aging process (in hypertension) and how they affect the development of other pathologies (e.g. Alzheimer’s) and cognitive deficits.

Shaobo Jia

coming soon

Avinash Kalyani

I completed my M.Tech in Signal Processing (Indian Institute of Technology, Indore), and worked as a Research and Development engineer at the National Brain Research Centre, India, where I gained experience in the field of Neuro-imaging and spectroscopy using a 3T-MRI machine. Currently, I am using Ultra-High-resolution fMRI data to work on a new method for data aggregation and decoding strategies. I am also working on layer fMRI data analysis and plan to do so using VASO sequence at a 7T-MRI machine to understand the fundamental mechanisms of human motor control using data glove systems that allow real-time motor movement tracking.

Dr. Hiroshi Kaneko

coming soon

Alexandros Karagiorgis

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, he started his career in the path of music by studying Musicology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His profound interest in both the sciences and the fundamentals of music perception, cognition, and motor performance, led him to neuroscience. He worked as a research assistant at the Medical Physics Laboratory AUTH, conducting EEG research on multisensory perception. As a PhD student in the project C03 of the CRC1436, he investigates interactions of attention and motor-skill learning.

Dr. Anna Karpova

Anna Karpova is a senior researcher and a Co-PI with Michael Kreutz at Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN), Research Group Neurplasticity, as well as PI in CBBS, Magdeburg. She is a program coordinator Molecular Biology / Cell Biology at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology. She runs research on the role of long-distance protein and membrane trafficking in neuronal function. Her main expertise is in molecular and cellular neuroscience including structural and functional organization of the chemical synapse, synaptic plasticity, time-lapse and super resolution imaging.

Christoph Knoll

“Ingenuity, excellence and continual learning” – these three words sum up my passion for the field of Cognitive Neuroscience and Sport Science. In my PhD, I aim to develop a research profile within the field of Cognitive Neuroscience and Microstructural Imaging that investigates in brain vasculature and connected ccognitive changes. I aspire to gain practical insights about the best spatial resolution system of 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging.

Jana Köhler

coming soon

Prof. Dr. med. Michael Kreißl

coming soon

Dr. Michael R. Kreutz

Michael R. Kreutz is head of the Neuroplasticity research group at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology and he has a second affiliation at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology (ZMNH) in Hamburg where he is heading the Leibniz Group ‘Dendritic Organelles and Synaptic Function’. His research interest is in synapse biology. His work is concerned with fundamental questions on how synapses communicate with the nucleus, how gene activity-dependent gene expression feeds back to synaptic function and how this is related to the formation of a cellular engram and last but not least how the nanoscale organization of the synapse determines functional properties in the context of learning and memory.

Prof. Dr. Kristine Krug

Kristine Krug moved in 2019 as a Heisenberg Professor [DFG] and the Chair in Sensory Physiology to the Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg. Her programme of research investigates the neural circuits and mechanisms of perceptual decision-making. Her long-term scientific aim is to understand and control the neuronal signals that shape perception and decision-making from the level of single brain cells through to mental states. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of eLife, as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Primate Centre (DPZ) and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford.

Felix Kuhn

Felix Kuhn obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Würzburg in 2018. In 2021 he completed the master’s program Integrative Neuroscience at the Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg. He did his master’s thesis in the research group Comparative Neuroscience at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology before he joined the department of Cellular Neuroscience for his PhD project.

Dr. Esther Kühn

Esther Kühn is head of the Research Group “Cortical Microstructure in Health and Disease” at the Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research at the Medical Faculty. She investigates adaptive and maladaptive changes in the cortical microstructure of the human sensorimotor system that she investigates using ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging in combination with behavioral assessments. Her research aim is to understand and treat maladaptive brain states of the sensorimotor system, in particular those in advanced age, in mental illness, and in conditions of motor disorders. She contributes to the CRC by her expertise in the areas of mesoscale imaging using 7T-MRI, mesoscale data modelling, and the biological interpretation of MR-based tissue contrast.

Dr. Peter Landgraf

Peter studied Biology and Biochemistry at the Matin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and finished with the diploma degree. After his PhD at the same university, he moved in 2000 to Magdeburg and joined the labs of Michael R. Kreutz at the Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology (LIN) and Hans-Christian Pape at the Institute of Physiology of the Medical Faculty. In 2009 he joined the Emmy-Noether-Research Group of Daniela C. Dieterich at the LIN and in 2012 he followed her to the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology of the Medical Faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, where he is a senior scientist and lecturer for pharmacology and toxicology. His main interest is focused on the protein turnover in neurons and astrocytes as well as state of the art metabolic labeling technologies like NCAT’s.

Dr. Nico Lehmann

I’m a research associate in the lab of Marco Taubert at Otto von Guericke University (Department of Sport Science). My research focusses on the effects of physical exercise (cardiovascular and balance training) on motor learning and cognition, and the mediating role of structural and functional brain plasticity in this relationship.

Marina Leimann

I studied Psychology and Clinical Neuropsychology (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina), and also obtained a Master’s Degree in Behavioural Science (University of Almería, Spain).

I have always found human behaviour and cognition as a fascinating field, especially healthy ageing and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, I would like to develop a research career in Translational Neuroscience to help improve public health policies and the healthcare system.

As a PhD student at IKND, my project focuses on noradrenergic pathways to improve cognition in older adults.

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Volkmar Leßmann

Volkmar Leßmann is the Director of the Institute of Physiology at the Medical Faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg. His research is focussed on molecular and cellular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in health and disease. Using combined electrophysiological and advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques, his group investigates how neuromodulatory transmitters like dopamine and neurotrophins like BDNF shape synaptic transmission in neuronal circuits of the mouse hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, and how this affects learning in vivo. In collaboration with Psychiatrists, Neurologists, and Sports scientists from Magdeburg and Jena, his team further investigates the role of BDNF as a biomarker in patients of major depressive disorder (MDD), schizophrenia and dementia. Together with the group of Frank Ohl from the LIN, his research addresses optogenetically driven BDNF regulation of neuronal circuits in maladapted cortico-hippocampal interactions that are involved in Alzheimer’s disease and fear learning.

Dr. Michael Lippert

coming soon

Peng Liu

I completed my B.Sc in Psychology (Harbin Normal University, China) and M.Sc in Neuroimaging for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience (The University of Manchester, The UK), where I learned multiple neuroimaging techniques and analysing methods, and developed particular interest in MRI. Currently, I am investigating the functional architecture in primary somatosensory cortex (SI) ageing in human by combining Ultra-High-resolution fMRI images collected from healthy older and younger adults, and Fourier-based functional analyses and population receptive field mapping. Meanwhile, to explore the precise origin of where functional feature changes rising from, I am applying ultra-high-resolution structural quantitive image to define cortical layers and taking functional analyses to a layer-specific level. I am also building up a mice-model by employing Two-Photon Calcium Imaging on healthy older and younger mice, to study the similarity and difference in functional architectures in SI between human and mice, and potentially answer research questions on single-cell level.

Lilli Marie Lümkemann

coming soon

Dr. Falk Lüsebrink

coming soon

Dr. Anne Maass

Dr. Anne Maass is a group leader at the DZNE (since 2019) and her work focuses on the use of Multimodal neuroimaging techniques for understanding how brain function changes in aging and age-related disease, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In her previous work, she used ultra-high resolution functional MRI to investigate memory pathways in the medial temporal lobe and its plasticity in the human brain in aging and disease. During her Post Doc at UC Berkeley, she combined functional MRI with molecular imaging (PET), which allows to assess AD pathology, to investigate how early tau and amyloid-beta pathology affects memory function, ultimately resulting in memory deficits. At the DZNE she now combines different neuroimaging techniques to better understand what drives the accumulation of age-related pathology (e.g. aberrant activation) and why some people do not develop pathology (are resistant) or why others remain cognitively normal in face of pathology (are resilient). Within the SFB1436 she leads the Z03 project together with Prof. Düzel and Prof. Kreissl as well as the project B04 together with Esther Kühn and Stefanie Schreiber (Co-PI: Nadine Diersch).

Jonas Marquardt

Since May 2021 I am working as a PhD student at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in the collaborative research unit on project B04. I have a degree in psychology and I am particularly interested in cognitive science & neuroscience. Thematically, I am fascinated by neuroplasticity, spatial navigation, digital markers for cognitive health, and machine learning.

Nico Marek

coming soon

Martin Matke

I am working as a PhD student in the C01 project of the CRC on dynamic modelling of structural brain alterations and changes in functional abilities during learning. My goal as a researcher is to help understand how changing environments induce neuroplasticity. This understanding may help to inform future interventions that aim to mobilise neural resources in aged humans. As a basis for that, I am also interested in ongoing improvements in quantitative MRI.

Linus Marquering

coming soon

Dr. Susanne Meis

coming soon

Dr. Christian Merkel

coming soon

Hadi Mirzapourdelavar

coming soon

Petra Mocellin

coming soon

Dr. Eóin Molloy

Eóin is a postdoctoral researcher at the University Clinic for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, OvGU and the Multimodal Neuroimaging (MuMoNi) Lab at the DZNE, Magdeburg. Eóin completed his PhD at the MPI for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences in Leipzig. His research interests include characterizing the molecular and functional mechanisms of pathological ageing and dementia with an emphasis on the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Within the SFB, Eóin’s projects include the Z03 project, which is focused on delineating the neural resources of SuperAgers, with a goal towards understanding how these older individuals remain cognitively healthy into later life.

Patrick Müller

coming soon

Dr. Thomas Munsch

coming soon

Prof. Dr. Toemme Noesselt

Toemme Noesselt is the Chair of the Biological Psychology Department of the Institute of Psychology. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at the Universities of Heidelberg, Düsseldorf and UCLA, USA, completed his PhD at the University of Magdeburg and a PostDoc at the UCL, UK in Jon Driver’s lab. His research aims at identifying the neural underpinnings of multisensory perception and memory by combining behavioural with electrophysiological and brain-imaging read-outs.   

Dr. Anja Oelschlegel

coming soon

Prof. Dr. Frank Ohl

Frank Ohl is Director of the Department “Systems Physiology of Learning” at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg and is Professor of “Neurobiology” at the Institute of Biology of the Faculty of Natural sciences of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. His background is neurophysiology and physics. He has developed rodent modes for cognitive processes (including concept learning and category formation) und investigates neuronal dynamics during learning using electrophysiological, optical and optogenetic methods. In collaboration with mathematicians and computer scientists he also develops neurocomputational models of experimentally investigated neuronal processes and helps with the advancement of machine learning strategies using novel neuro-inspired algorithms.

Halla Mulla Osman

coming soon

Dr. Janelle Pakan 

Janelle Pakan is Group Leader of the Neural Circuits & Network Dynamics research group funded by the Center for Behavioural Brain Sciences at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. She completed her PhD work in Canada at the University of Alberta and postdoc work at UBC before relocating to Europe to complete Fellowships in Ireland and at the University of Edinburgh. Her research is focused on understanding the functional neural circuits that underlie the transformation of sensory information to behavioural output in both health and disease states. She utilizes functional neuroanatomical techniques and advanced two-photon imaging in behaving mice in combination with virtual environments.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Pollmann

Stefan Pollmann heads the Experimental Psychology workgroup at the OVGU. His research focuses on the allocation of attentional resources including their neural foundation.

Nisha Prabhu

Affiliation: Faculty of Human Sciences, Institute III, Department of Sport Science (Training science with focus on cognition and action), Otto von Guericke University

Research interests: My research interests include understanding the neurobiological mechanisms involved in the process of motor learning and the relationship between brain structure and behaviour. As part of the C01 project, my goal is to explore the factors that promote exercise-induced neuroplasticity through response optimised balance training in the elderly.

Dr. Matthias Prigge

Matthias Prigge did his Ph.D. in experimental biophysics in the lab of Peter Hegemann, where he worked on photoreceptors, and how to employ them to manipulate neuronal circuits. These proteins are now commonly used to manipulate neuronal circuits while models animals are performing a behavioral task. For his Postdoc, he joined the lab of Ofer Yizhar at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Here, he developed an interest in systems neuroscience and in particular, how to manipulate neuromodulatory networks to ease symptoms during progression of neurodegenerative disease. His lab is designing optical tools and technologies to better understand neuromodulatory networks in healt and disease.

Dr. Rajeev Raman

Rajeev Raman is originally from Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, India. Since January 2016, he is working as a scientific employee at NPlast, (Dr Michael Kreutz Group, LIN, Magdeburg). Rajeev contributes to his work with a lot of experience and competence in protein biochemistry.

Mark Revan Rangotis

coming soon

Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Remy

Stefan Remy is the scientific director of LIN, head of the Department of Cellular Neuroscience and is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at the Medical Faculty of Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg.

He received his PhD from the University of Bonn in 2003 and subsequently did his postdoctoral research with Heinz Beck at the Department of Epileptology (Director: Christian E. Elger). As an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, he joined the Department of Neurobiology and Physiologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, USA. There he conducted research on synaptic plasticity and neuronal excitability under Nelson Spruston. In 2007, he continued his research with Heinz Beck in Bonn, where he founded his own research group in 2009, funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Before taking up his new duties at LIN in 2020, he spent 10 years as head of the “Neuronal Networks” research group at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn. Stefan Remy is spokesperson of the Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS) and represents the Magdeburg site (in the Jena-Magdeburg-Halle network) at the newly founded German Center for Mental Health.

Prof. Dr. med. Petra Ritter

Petra Ritter is full Professor and director of the Brain Simulation Section at the Berlin Institute of Health, Charité University Medicine Berlin. Her research focus is the integration of neuroimaging and computational neuroscience for eHealth applications. She serves as lead of several large scale consortia and projects such as the Charité & BIH Virtual Research Environment, the National Research Data Infrastructure Initiative in Neuroscience and the European Open Science Cloud project VirtualBrainCloud. She additionally served as lead of the Co-design Project The Virtual Brain in the EU Flagship Human Brain Project.

Dr. Anni Richter

Anni is a postdoctoral scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology. She has a background in psychology and is interested in human cognition. In her research, she focuses on dopaminergic modulation of implicit and explicit learning, synaptogenetics of human learning and memory, and multimodal markers of neurocognitive aging using non-invasive methods, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Dr. Julia Rödiger

coming soon

Boyan Rong

I am currently a PhD student at Freie Universität Berlin under the supervision of Prof. Radoslaw Cichy and co-supervised with Prof. Emrah Düzel. I completed the Master’s in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University with focus on Data-Driven Analysis and Computation. Now I am interested in how cognitive training influences visual cortex as well as how to utilize computer vision methods to facilitate human vision study.

Sebastian Samer

coming soon

Parthiban Saravanakumar

Parthiban completed a Bachelor’s in Biotechnology at the Rajalakshmi Engineering College of Anna University in Chennai, India. He then came of Magdeburg to study his Master’s degree in Integrative Neuroscience with a thesis on exploratory attentional resource allocation in probabilistic foraging in the Department of Systems Physiology of Learning in Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology, Magdeburg.  He is continuing now as a PhD candidate researching prefrontal cortical recruitment of attentional resource allocation during foraging behavior in the same Institute. 

Prof. Dr. Magdalena Sauvage

Magdalena Sauvage leads the Functional Architecture of Memory (FAM) department and co-directs the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) in Magdeburg. She gained expertise in memory function throughout her career at the MPI for Psychiatry (Munich, Germany), MIT (Graybiel lab, Boston, USA) and Boston University (Eichenbaum lab, USA). Her department investigates the neural basis of memory in health and pathology using human to rats translational tasks combined with high-resolution molecular imaging, optogenetics, single-cell in-vivo electrophysiology and 9.4T fMRI in awake rats. She organizes the biennal international and interdisciplinary FAM conference series, is member of the CRC1436 Steering Committee and serves as editor for “Neurobiology of Learning and Memory”.

Theresa Schaaf

coming soon

Amber Ruth Schembri

My name is Amber Schembri and I am a PhD student and work within the Institute of Physiology at the University Hospital, Magdeburg. I joined the CRC in the September of 2021 yet have a background in biochemistry and neuroscience. I specialize in whole-cell patchclamp  and my current interests include how neural resources are able to change the neuroplasticity in the brain during memory and learning tasks – and how age and disease can affect this.

Prof. Dr. med. Mircea Ariel Schoenfeld

Ariel Schoenfeld is the head of the experimental neurology group and chair for experimental neurology and functional neuroimaging at the medical faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. He is also medical director of the Kliniken Schmieder hospital in Heidelberg. He focusses on the neural mechanisms of perception and attention in the visual domain in health and disease with a special emphasis on these processes in patients with lesions within the CNS. The research addresses basic science as well as clinical-pathological aspects using multimodal structural and functional neuroimaging (structural and functional MRI, EEG and MEG) methods.   

Nadine Schönemann

coming soon

Dr. Dr. med. Björn Hendrik Schott

Björn Schott is a consultant psychiatrist at the University of Göttingen and, together with Constanze Seidenbecher, head of the Synapse-Brain-Cognition group in the Department of Behavioral Neurology at LIN Magdeburg. His research focuses on the extent to which genetic and immunological factors affect learning and memory processes in humans, as well as their disruption in old age and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. He serves as an associate editor for Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Prof. Dr. med. Stefanie Schreiber

As a clinician scientist my main research interest is the often devastating cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) which, by causing a deterioration of the cerebral small vessels, leads to a cascade including impaired blood supply, blood-brain-barrier breakdown and reduced solute removal, facilitating cognitive impairment in later stages. Our experimental work is aimed at the identification of key neuropathologic mechanisms of earlier disease stages in animal models. Based on those insights we study a locally established cohort of CSVD patients to derive innovative markers of disease risk and progression using multimodal imaging, biofluids and cognitive testing that will enable new options for prevention, diagnostic and treatment of CSVD patients.

Prof. Dr. Constanze Seidenbecher

Constanze Seidenbecher is a molecular neuroscientist and member of the CRC1436 Steering Committee. She is head of the Synapse-Brain-Cognition group in the Behavioral Neurology department at LIN Magdeburg, together with Björn Schott, and also heads the LIN Science Management & Public Outreach office. Her research is focused on synaptic molecules and the perisynaptic extracellular matrix of the brain as determinants of neural and homeostatic plasticity. She is council member of the International Society for Neurochemistry and chair of the ISN Career Development committee and she serves as editor for Journal of Neurochemistry.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Speck 

Oliver Speck is head of the Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance at the Institute of Physics of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. He conducts research in the field of ultra-high field MRI and its neuroscientific applications. A particular aim is to develop methods for high-resolution in vivo imaging of the human brain. This is achieved through fast imaging techniques, methods for prospective correction of movements of the head and methods for geometrically correct imaging of brain structures. He supports the CRC with his expertise in MRI methodology, MRI hardware and application in neuroscience.

Dr. med. Max-Philipp Stenner

Max-Philipp Stenner is head of the Motor Learning Lab at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology and at Otto-von-Guericke University, and deputy head of the LIN Department of Behavioral Neurology. His research, funded by a Freigeist Fellowship of the Volkswagen Foundation, investigates how human motor control and perception interact for motor learning, and how our subjective experience of control emerges from this interaction. As a clinician scientist, he is particularly interested in the subjective experience of control in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including Tourette’s syndrome, ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. His major expertise is a combination of psychophysics with human non-invasive and invasive neurophysiology, including magneto- and electroencephalography as well as intracranial and spinal recordings of local field potentials in humans.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Stork

Prof. Dr. Oliver Stork is head of the Department of Genetics & Molecular Neurobiology at the Institute of Biology at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. His research is devoted to understanding molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the formation and specification of emotional memories. His special focus is on the analysis of local circuit processes in the context of the formation of engram cell assemblies in the hippocampus. He will contribute his expertise in the establishment and integrative analysis of rodent models for behavioral and memory research to the CRC.

In addition to the SFB1436, Prof. Stork is a member of the Magdeburg Collaborative Research Center SFB854 and the German Center for Mental Health in Magdeburg, and serves as a spokesperson for various neuroscientific graduate schools, including the IRTG1436 (this program), the CBBS graduate program and the GRK2413 (deputy spokesperson).

Dr. Peter Schulze

coming soon

Beate Schumann-Werner

Beate Schumann-Werner is a speech-language pathologist. She completed her master’s degree at RWTH Aachen University. After a research visit at the Upper Airway Dysfunction Lab at the University of Florida/ Gainesville, she started her PhD at RWTH Aachen University. In her doctoral study, she focused on neural correlates for dysphagia in Huntington’s Disease. She previously worked as Research Assistant and coordinator of the Neuropsychological Therapy Ward at the University Hospital Aachen. Since July 2022, Beate is supporting project Z03 within the SFB as Research Assistant. Her clinical and research interests include diagnosis and treatment of swallowing and communication disorders associated with neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Hartmut Schütze

coming soon

Svenja Schwarck

coming soon

Dr. Vladislava Segen

Vladislava Segen is a postdoctoral researcher in the Aging, Cognition & Technology group at the DZNE Magdeburg. Her research explores how grid cell coding is affected by very early Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. And if changes in grid cell coding during path integration tasks can be used as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. To do this,  she utilizes functional imaging, immersive VR technology and computational modelling. A variant of the path integration ask will be used as part of B03 sub-project to study whether fMRI grid coding in “Superagers” is also associated with better navigation. In addition, she is involved in the development of a virtual reality path integration task that can be used as a diagnostic tool in a clinical setting as well as a VR-based vestibular intervention tool.

Lisa Seifried

coming soon

Linda Sempf

coming soon

Ursula Spiegel

coming soon

Harini Srinivasan

I am a PhD student in the SFB 1436 since August 2021. I work under the sub project Orexinergic Modulation of neural resource (A07), where I study how memory engrams are modulated by the circadian rhythm. I focus on how orexinergic signalling plays a role in this modulation by using behavioural, molecular and biochemical techniques. After my Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology, I graduated from OVGU with Master’s in Integrative Neuroscience. During my master thesis, I studied in vitro how intracellular calcium is regulated by Neuroplastin-PMCA complex in hippocampal neurons.

Prof. Dr. Marco Taubert

Marco Taubert is the head of the Cognition and Action Research group and chair for Training Science at the Otto-von Guericke University Magdeburg. His research focusses on training-induced structural and functional brain plasticity in humans. His expertise is in motor learning, the time course of tissue-specific plasticity and non-invasive brain imaging and transcranial stimulation methods.

Dr. Jana Tegelbeckers

Jana is a postdoctoral fellow working with Prof. Markus Ullsperger in the Department of Neuropsychology at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. She’s currently working on the effects of sleep deprivation on the availability and mobilization of neural resources. Her main research interest is to use functional imaging methods and non-invasive brain stimulation (tDCS, TMS) to understand alterations in information processing, cognitive control and decision making in clinical populations as for instance ADHD and substance use disorders.

Prof. Dr. med. Markus Ullsperger

Markus Ullsperger is full professor and head of the Department of Neuropsychology at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg since 2012 as well as a principal investigator (PI) at the Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS) Magdeburg. His research of about 20 years aims at understanding the structural, functional and neuro-chemical aspects of performance monitoring and cognitive control. To that end he’s using an integrative approach combining neuroimaging, EEG, computational modeling and pharmacological interventions in the healthy population but also in patients with neurological or psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Peter Vavra

coming soon

Alisa Vlasenko

coming soon

Niklas Vockert

I am a PhD student at the DZNE with a background in mathematical and computational modeling of biological processes. Nowadays, I generally investigate reserve (e.g. cognitive reserve, resistance, resilience) in the context of aging and disease with the use of multimodal neuroimaging techniques. For the most part my focus lies on the relationship between hippocampal vascularization and behavioral, structural as well as functional measures, which I will also analyze in the context of subproject B04 in this CRC.

Dr. Alice Weiglein

Currently, I am working as a postdoc in the Albrecht Lab for Functional Neuroanatomy of stress and emotional learning. During my education as a neurobiologist, I investigated mechanisms of reinforcement learning in small animal models. To that end, I am now involved in different projects in which we investigate hippocampal circuits involved in learning and memory, as well as mechanisms of stress adaptation, autophagy mechanisms in stress-induced pathologies, and stress-induced disturbances of the skin-brain axis in murine models.

Tim Adrian Wendlandt

After finishing his Master’s studies in Medical Biology with specialisation in Neuroscience at Radboud University in the Netherlands, Adrian started working as a PhD candidate for the SFB in July of 2021. In the Pakan lab at the IKND, he investigates the neuronal circuits and information processing that underlie temporal expectations in mice. His research applies a combination of 2-photon imaging in the posterior parietal cortex during a cue-target task paradigm and, in collaboration with Eike Budinger, fMRI methods.

Patricia Wenk

coming soon

Prof. Dr. Thomas Wolbers

Thomas Wolbers is the head of the Aging, Cognition & Technology group at the DZNE Magdeburg. By exploiting the unique potential of extended reality (XR) technologies, he has established an ambitious research program that (i) employs spatial navigation as a model system for understanding mechanisms of healthy and pathological ageing, (ii) develops XR based diagnostic tools to improve the assessment of cognitive health, and (iii) implements technology-based interventions to counteract emotional and cognitive deficits. In addition, he entertains international cooperations to broaden his research portfolio with computational modelling, software engineering and research on animal models of aging.

Dr. Pingan Yuanxiang

My name is PingAn YuanXiang and graduated from Shanghai, China. I studied in the major of Neurobiology at the Fudan University in Shanghai and completed my Ph.D. thesis in 2012. 
Since 2013 I work as a research scientist in Nplast at the LIN. My expertise is electrophysiology including field recordings and single-cell patch clamp and also combines with cell biological techniques. My main interest is related to molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and aging regulator in brain function.

Dr. Gabriel Ziegler

Gabriel Ziegler is heading the modelling and neuroprognosis group at the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND). His work focusses on state-of-the art statistical approaches such as latent variable modelling of brain-behavioral relationships, longitudinal brain changes, and disease progression in ageing and dementia research using MRI. He has made innovative contributions in developmental cognitive neuroscience using multivariate, kernel methods, Gaussian Processes, dynamical systems and Bayesian inference. His working group implements MR-based predictive models for memory performance and develops multivariate functional and structural indices of brain maintenance. He is part of the in-vivo histology (hMRI) working group that establishes new analysis techniques for quantitative multi-modal MRI.

Fabian Zmiskol

coming soon

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Anne Albrecht

Anne Albrecht is the head of the Department of Neuroanatomy at the Institute of Anatomy at the Otto-von-Guericke University. Her research group studies the functional neuroanatomy of emotional memory and stress adaptation circuits. She also teaches anatomy to 1st and 2nd year medical students.

The focus of her research is on the investigation of GABAergic interneurons and neuropeptides in learning, memory and stress processing in rodent models. To analyze the role of e.g. orexin in circuits of memory formation, her group uses neuronal tracing, high-resolution methods for expression analysis (RNAScope, laser-assisted microdissection & qPCR) as well as viral and pharmacological interventions in conjunction with behavioral analysis in mice and structural and molecular studies in cell and tissue cultures.

Dr. Kevin Allen

Kevin Allen is a group leader at the Department of Clinical Neurobiology of the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University and DKFZ Heidelberg. His research aims at understanding how the brain orchestrates navigation. His research group combines electrophysiological recordings, optogenetics, and behavioral approaches in mice to reveal the role of different networks or cell populations in navigation. 

Dr. Maria Andres-Alonso

Dr. rer. nat Maria Andres-Alonso obtained her degree in Biology at the University of Navarre, Spain. After obtaining her master´s degree in Neuroscience at University College London, UK, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Anna Fejtova and Dr. Eckart Gundelfinger the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) where she performed her doctoral studies within a Marie Curie ITN programme coordinated by Dr. Michael Kreutz. She is currently working as a senior post-doctoral researcher in the research group Neuroplasticity leaded by Dr. Michael Kreutz at LIN. Her research interests are directed towards understanding the role degradative organelles at synaptic sites and function, and the contribution of microsecretory systems in maintaining proteostasis of synaptic membrane proteins.

Prof. Dr. med. Frank Angenstein

Since 2012 I am head of the research group “Functional Neuroimaging” at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Magdeburg. My work focuses on the search for the neurophysiological basis of fMRI imaging and how different modulatory transmitter systems influence the interaction of the hippocampus with individual cortical and subcortical brain structures under normal and pathological conditions. To address this, individual brain structures are selectively activated by electrical, optogenetic, or chemogenetic stimulation, and the resulting neuronal responses are simultaneously measured both directly by in vivo electrophysiological recordings in the hippocampus and indirectly in the whole brain by fMRI measurements.

Dr. Elena Azañón

Elena Azañón studied Psychology at the University of Barcelona. After her doctoral thesis with Salvador Soto-Faraco, she was granted a Marie Curie Fellowship to work at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (University College London) in the group of Patrick Haggard (2012-2014). After completing her first postdoctoral position, she continued her scientific work at Birkbeck University London as a senior postdoc in the working group of Matthew Longo (2014-2018). In 2018, she joined the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, with a Dorothea Erxleben Visiting Professorship. She is currently leading the Somatosensory and Body Perception Lab at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology and at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg as a Junior Research leader.

Dr. Matthew Betts

Matthew is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND) located at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (OVGU). He leads a research program that aims to understand how structural changes to subcortical neuromodulatory systems relate to cognitive decline in aging and to the clinical and pathological manifestations of neurodegenerative diseases. This incorporates a combination of novel structural MR imaging techniques using ultra high-field MRI, PET imaging, CSF biomarkers and behavioural tasks. He is the cofounder of the Locus Coeruleus imaging meeting that brings together clinicians, neuropathologists, physicists and cognitive neuroscientists to try to better understand the role of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus in neurodegenerative diseases.

Prof. Dr. Eike Budinger

Eike Budinger studied biology at the Humboldt University in Berlin with a focus on zoology, behavioural biology and microbiology and then at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) Magdeburg in the “Acoustics, Learning and Language” department with Prof. Henning Scheich where he studied the functional organization of the auditory cortex. Since then, he has been a research scientist at the LIN studying acoustics, learning, and systems physiology as well as at the Medical Faculty of the Otto von Guericke University (OvGU) Magdeburg. He has headed the “Functional Neuroanatomy” project group since 2005 and the 9.4 Tesla “Small Animal MRI Laboratory” since 2017. He habilitated in 2015 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the OvGU and received the title of adjunct professor in 2021.

Prof. Dr. Radoslaw Martin Cichy

Radek Cichy is a cognitive scientist and head of the Neural Dynamics of Visual Cognition Group at the Freie Universität Berlin. His group investigates how the human brain translates the constant flow of photons hitting the retina into percept of the world that is conscious and ordered in objects. For this the group combines methodology from different disciplines: behavioral measures from psychology, brain measurements from neuroscience, and machine learning as well as connectionist modeling from computer science. Radek Cichy is recipient of the Emmy Noether Award and the ERC Starting Grant. He is the director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Berlin at FUB.

Prof. Dr. Daniela Dieterich

Daniela C. Dieterich is an expert addressing the role of synaptic protein homeostasis regulation through the coordinated control of translation and degradation. She has developed and applied cutting-edge technologies involving ‘click-chemistry’ that provide the consortium with tools to address dynamic changes in these processes with unprecedented temporal and cellular resolution, ultimately allowing the cell-selective identification of neuronal and glial access points.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Dityatev

Alexander Dityatev is the head of the Molecular Neuroplasticity group at the DZNE Magdeburg. He runs a research program on the role of neural extracellular matrix in neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, depression and schizophrenia. His major expertise is in extracellular matrix biology, synaptic plasticity and synaptogenesis, electrophysiology, behavioral analysis and two-photon imaging in awake mice.  He is serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Cellular Microenvironment section in Cells.

Dr. Stefan Dürschmid

Stefan Dürschmid received a diploma in Education (2005) and Psychology (2009). In 2013 he finished his PhD and was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley (2013-2014). Stefan Dürschmid is head of the research group “sensory learning and predictions“ and submit his Habilitationsschrift in 2021 at the Otto-von-Guericke Universität.

Prof. Dr. med. Emrah Düzel

Emrah Düzel has trained as a neurologist in Germany (in Bonn and Magdeburg). He is working as a cognitive neurologist on the functional anatomy of human episodic memory networks, neuromodulatory circuits, their clinical and mechanistic alterations in aging and neurodegeneration and their scope for plasticity. He leads the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research and Memory Clinic at the OvG University Magdeburg. As speaker of the Magdeburg site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE, Helmholtz Society), he supports the implementation and analysis of imaging and cognition measures for early Alzheimer’s disease. He is also a part time group leader at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Univ. College London, a fellow of the Max-Planck School of Cognition and co-founder of the digital health start-up neotiv. Within the newly founded German Network of Memory Clinics, he coordinates a working group on Digital Health and Telemedicine.

Prof. Dr. Markus Fendt

Markus Fendt is head of a research group at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxiology, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. The group’s research focuses on the neuropharmacological basis of emotional and cognitive brain systems with special interest in behavioral endophenotypes of neuropsychiatric disorders. To this end, various behavioral paradigms are used in combination with molecular and immunohistochemical analyses as well as systemic and local pharmacological and chemogenetic manipulations in wildtype and genetically modified laboratory rodents.

Prof. Dr. Dorothea Hämmerer

Dorothea Hämmerer studied psychology at the University of Trier, the University of Paris X Nanterre and the University of Freiburg. Starting with her doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in 2006, she used cognitive neuroscientific methods to understand why we have different cognitive abilities at different ages. Dorothea Hämmerer’s post-doc studies took her to the Technical University of Dresden, the University College London (Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Welcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging) and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Magdeburg. They have enabled her to expand her skills in magnetic resonance imaging and in the physiological and cognitive assessment of aging and dementia. She still maintains close collaborative relationships with the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience in London and the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience. In her research, Dorothea Hämmerer tries to understand how age differences in the brain, especially in neuromodulatory systems, affect age differences in cognitive functions, especially attention control, decision-making and memory across the lifespan. Together with her collaboration partners, she is developing cognitive paradigms and non-invasive imaging methods that can capture correlates of individual neuromodulatory systems (especially dopamine and noradrenaline) in a more targeted manner. For reasons that are still unknown, neuromodulatory systems are particularly vulnerable in old age and are among the earliest and most severely affected brain regions in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s dementia. In her current research, Prof. Hämmerer focuses in particular on exploring the noradrenergic locus coeruleus and uses structural and functional imaging methods to map the earliest cognitive and neurophysiological changes in neurodegenerative diseases. She is co-founder of the Locus Coeruleus Imaging Meeting Magdeburg, which brings together clinicians, animal researchers, physicists and cognitive neuroscientists to try to better understand the role of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus in neurodegenerative diseases. Her research was recognized with the Brenda Milner Award and a Senior Research Fellowship from Alzheimer Research UK.

Prof. Dr. Michael Hanke

Michael Hanke is the head of the Psychoinformatics team at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine – Brain and Behaviour (INM-7) at the Jülich Research Centre, where he has developed research software and computational methodology for machine learning-based analysis and functional alignment of neuroimaging data. He will assist with the technical implementation of computational pipelines and their dissemination.

Prof. Dr. Max Happel

Max Happel is the head of the CortXplorer Research Group at the Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg and a professor for physiology at the MSB Medical School Berlin. His research group focusses on in vivo circuit physiology in rodents during learning, memory and decision making. 

Prof. Dr. med. Jens-Max Hopf

Jens- Max Hopf is the head of the Cognitive Neurophysiology Group and chair for Cognitive Neurophysiology at the medical faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. He is also head of the guest-research group visual attention at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg. His research focuses on mechanism underlying attentional selection in human visual cortex using non-invasive neuroimaging methods, including electromagnetic brain recordings (MEG/EEG) and functional MRI.

Dr. Anna Karpova

Anna Karpova is a senior researcher and a Co-PI with Michael Kreutz at Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN), Research Group Neurplasticity, as well as PI in CBBS, Magdeburg. She is a program coordinator Molecular Biology / Cell Biology at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology. She runs research on the role of long-distance protein and membrane trafficking in neuronal function. Her main expertise is in molecular and cellular neuroscience including structural and functional organization of the chemical synapse, synaptic plasticity, time-lapse and super resolution imaging.

Prof. Dr. med. Michael Kreißl

coming soon

Dr. Michael R. Kreutz

Michael R. Kreutz is head of the Neuroplasticity research group at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology and he has a second affiliation at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology (ZMNH) in Hamburg where he is heading the Leibniz Group ‘Dendritic Organelles and Synaptic Function’. His research interest is in synapse biology. His work is concerned with fundamental questions on how synapses communicate with the nucleus, how gene activity-dependent gene expression feeds back to synaptic function and how this is related to the formation of a cellular engram and last but not least how the nanoscale organization of the synapse determines functional properties in the context of learning and memory.

Prof. Dr. Kristine Krug

Kristine Krug moved in 2019 as a Heisenberg Professor [DFG] and the Chair in Sensory Physiology to the Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg. Her programme of research investigates the neural circuits and mechanisms of perceptual decision-making. Her long-term scientific aim is to understand and control the neuronal signals that shape perception and decision-making from the level of single brain cells through to mental states. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of eLife, as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Primate Centre (DPZ) and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford.

Dr. Esther Kühn

Esther Kühn is head of the Research Group “Cortical Microstructure in Health and Disease” at the Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research at the Medical Faculty. She investigates adaptive and maladaptive changes in the cortical microstructure of the human sensorimotor system that she investigates using ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging in combination with behavioral assessments. Her research aim is to understand and treat maladaptive brain states of the sensorimotor system, in particular those in advanced age, in mental illness, and in conditions of motor disorders. She contributes to the CRC by her expertise in the areas of mesoscale imaging using 7T-MRI, mesoscale data modelling, and the biological interpretation of MR-based tissue contrast.

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Volkmar Leßmann

Volkmar Leßmann is the Director of the Institute of Physiology at the Medical Faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg. His research is focussed on molecular and cellular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in health and disease. Using combined electrophysiological and advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques, his group investigates how neuromodulatory transmitters like dopamine and neurotrophins like BDNF shape synaptic transmission in neuronal circuits of the mouse hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, and how this affects learning in vivo. In collaboration with Psychiatrists, Neurologists, and Sports scientists from Magdeburg and Jena, his team further investigates the role of BDNF as a biomarker in patients of major depressive disorder (MDD), schizophrenia and dementia. Together with the group of Frank Ohl from the LIN, his research addresses optogenetically driven BDNF regulation of neuronal circuits in maladapted cortico-hippocampal interactions that are involved in Alzheimer’s disease and fear learning.

Dr. Anne Maass

Dr. Anne Maass is a group leader at the DZNE (since 2019) and her work focuses on the use of Multimodal neuroimaging techniques for understanding how brain function changes in aging and age-related disease, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In her previous work, she used ultra-high resolution functional MRI to investigate memory pathways in the medial temporal lobe and its plasticity in the human brain in aging and disease. During her Post Doc at UC Berkeley, she combined functional MRI with molecular imaging (PET), which allows to assess AD pathology, to investigate how early tau and amyloid-beta pathology affects memory function, ultimately resulting in memory deficits. At the DZNE she now combines different neuroimaging techniques to better understand what drives the accumulation of age-related pathology (e.g. aberrant activation) and why some people do not develop pathology (are resistant) or why others remain cognitively normal in face of pathology (are resilient). Within the SFB1436 she leads the Z03 project together with Prof. Düzel and Prof. Kreissl as well as the project B04 together with Esther Kühn and Stefanie Schreiber (Co-PI: Nadine Diersch).

Prof. Dr. Toemme Noesselt

Toemme Noesselt is the Chair of the Biological Psychology Department of the Institute of Psychology. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at the Universities of Heidelberg, Düsseldorf and UCLA, USA, completed his PhD at the University of Magdeburg and a PostDoc at the UCL, UK in Jon Driver’s lab. His research aims at identifying the neural underpinnings of multisensory perception and memory by combining behavioural with electrophysiological and brain-imaging read-outs.   

Prof. Dr. Frank Ohl

Frank Ohl is Director of the Department “Systems Physiology of Learning” at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology Magdeburg and is Professor of “Neurobiology” at the Institute of Biology of the Faculty of Natural sciences of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. His background is neurophysiology and physics. He has developed rodent modes for cognitive processes (including concept learning and category formation) und investigates neuronal dynamics during learning using electrophysiological, optical and optogenetic methods. In collaboration with mathematicians and computer scientists he also develops neurocomputational models of experimentally investigated neuronal processes and helps with the advancement of machine learning strategies using novel neuro-inspired algorithms.

Dr. Janelle Pakan 

Janelle Pakan is Group Leader of the Neural Circuits & Network Dynamics research group funded by the Center for Behavioural Brain Sciences at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. She completed her PhD work in Canada at the University of Alberta and postdoc work at UBC before relocating to Europe to complete Fellowships in Ireland and at the University of Edinburgh. Her research is focused on understanding the functional neural circuits that underlie the transformation of sensory information to behavioural output in both health and disease states. She utilizes functional neuroanatomical techniques and advanced two-photon imaging in behaving mice in combination with virtual environments.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Pollmann

Stefan Pollmann heads the Experimental Psychology workgroup at the OVGU. His research focuses on the allocation of attentional resources including their neural foundation.

Dr. Matthias Prigge

Matthias Prigge did his Ph.D. in experimental biophysics in the lab of Peter Hegemann, where he worked on photoreceptors, and how to employ them to manipulate neuronal circuits. These proteins are now commonly used to manipulate neuronal circuits while models animals are performing a behavioral task. For his Postdoc, he joined the lab of Ofer Yizhar at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Here, he developed an interest in systems neuroscience and in particular, how to manipulate neuromodulatory networks to ease symptoms during progression of neurodegenerative disease. His lab is designing optical tools and technologies to better understand neuromodulatory networks in healt and disease.

Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Remy

Stefan Remy is the scientific director of LIN, head of the Department of Cellular Neuroscience and is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at the Medical Faculty of Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg.

He received his PhD from the University of Bonn in 2003 and subsequently did his postdoctoral research with Heinz Beck at the Department of Epileptology (Director: Christian E. Elger). As an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, he joined the Department of Neurobiology and Physiologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, USA. There he conducted research on synaptic plasticity and neuronal excitability under Nelson Spruston. In 2007, he continued his research with Heinz Beck in Bonn, where he founded his own research group in 2009, funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Before taking up his new duties at LIN in 2020, he spent 10 years as head of the “Neuronal Networks” research group at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn. Stefan Remy is spokesperson of the Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS) and represents the Magdeburg site (in the Jena-Magdeburg-Halle network) at the newly founded German Center for Mental Health.

Prof. Dr. med. Petra Ritter

Petra Ritter is full Professor and director of the Brain Simulation Section at the Berlin Institute of Health, Charité University Medicine Berlin. Her research focus is the integration of neuroimaging and computational neuroscience for eHealth applications. She serves as lead of several large scale consortia and projects such as the Charité & BIH Virtual Research Environment, the National Research Data Infrastructure Initiative in Neuroscience and the European Open Science Cloud project VirtualBrainCloud. She additionally served as lead of the Co-design Project The Virtual Brain in the EU Flagship Human Brain Project.

Prof. Dr. Magdalena Sauvage

Magdalena Sauvage leads the Functional Architecture of Memory (FAM) department and co-directs the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) in Magdeburg. She gained expertise in memory function throughout her career at the MPI for Psychiatry (Munich, Germany), MIT (Graybiel lab, Boston, USA) and Boston University (Eichenbaum lab, USA). Her department investigates the neural basis of memory in health and pathology using human to rats translational tasks combined with high-resolution molecular imaging, optogenetics, single-cell in-vivo electrophysiology and 9.4T fMRI in awake rats. She organizes the biennal international and interdisciplinary FAM conference series, is member of the CRC1436 Steering Committee and serves as editor for “Neurobiology of Learning and Memory”.

Prof. Dr. med. Mircea Ariel Schoenfeld

Ariel Schoenfeld is the head of the experimental neurology group and chair for experimental neurology and functional neuroimaging at the medical faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. He is also medical director of the Kliniken Schmieder hospital in Heidelberg. He focusses on the neural mechanisms of perception and attention in the visual domain in health and disease with a special emphasis on these processes in patients with lesions within the CNS. The research addresses basic science as well as clinical-pathological aspects using multimodal structural and functional neuroimaging (structural and functional MRI, EEG and MEG) methods.   

Dr. Dr. med. Björn Hendrik Schott

Björn Schott is a consultant psychiatrist at the University of Göttingen and, together with Constanze Seidenbecher, head of the Synapse-Brain-Cognition group in the Department of Behavioral Neurology at LIN Magdeburg. His research focuses on the extent to which genetic and immunological factors affect learning and memory processes in humans, as well as their disruption in old age and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. He serves as an associate editor for Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Prof. Dr. med. Stefanie Schreiber

As a clinician scientist my main research interest is the often devastating cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) which, by causing a deterioration of the cerebral small vessels, leads to a cascade including impaired blood supply, blood-brain-barrier breakdown and reduced solute removal, facilitating cognitive impairment in later stages. Our experimental work is aimed at the identification of key neuropathologic mechanisms of earlier disease stages in animal models. Based on those insights we study a locally established cohort of CSVD patients to derive innovative markers of disease risk and progression using multimodal imaging, biofluids and cognitive testing that will enable new options for prevention, diagnostic and treatment of CSVD patients.

Dr. Vladislava Segen

Vladislava Segen is a postdoctoral researcher in the Aging, Cognition & Technology group at the DZNE Magdeburg. Her research explores how grid cell coding is affected by very early Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. And if changes in grid cell coding during path integration tasks can be used as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. To do this,  she utilizes functional imaging, immersive VR technology and computational modelling. A variant of the path integration ask will be used as part of B03 sub-project to study whether fMRI grid coding in “Superagers” is also associated with better navigation. In addition, she is involved in the development of a virtual reality path integration task that can be used as a diagnostic tool in a clinical setting as well as a VR-based vestibular intervention tool.

Prof. Dr. Constanze Seidenbecher

Constanze Seidenbecher is a molecular neuroscientist and member of the CRC1436 Steering Committee. She is head of the Synapse-Brain-Cognition group in the Behavioral Neurology department at LIN Magdeburg, together with Björn Schott, and also heads the LIN Science Management & Public Outreach office. Her research is focused on synaptic molecules and the perisynaptic extracellular matrix of the brain as determinants of neural and homeostatic plasticity. She is council member of the International Society for Neurochemistry and chair of the ISN Career Development committee and she serves as editor for Journal of Neurochemistry.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Speck 

Oliver Speck is head of the Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance at the Institute of Physics of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. He conducts research in the field of ultra-high field MRI and its neuroscientific applications. A particular aim is to develop methods for high-resolution in vivo imaging of the human brain. This is achieved through fast imaging techniques, methods for prospective correction of movements of the head and methods for geometrically correct imaging of brain structures. He supports the CRC with his expertise in MRI methodology, MRI hardware and application in neuroscience.

Dr. med. Max-Philipp Stenner

Max-Philipp Stenner is head of the Motor Learning Lab at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology and at Otto-von-Guericke University, and deputy head of the LIN Department of Behavioral Neurology. His research, funded by a Freigeist Fellowship of the Volkswagen Foundation, investigates how human motor control and perception interact for motor learning, and how our subjective experience of control emerges from this interaction. As a clinician scientist, he is particularly interested in the subjective experience of control in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including Tourette’s syndrome, ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. His major expertise is a combination of psychophysics with human non-invasive and invasive neurophysiology, including magneto- and electroencephalography as well as intracranial and spinal recordings of local field potentials in humans.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Stork

Prof. Dr. Oliver Stork is head of the Department of Genetics & Molecular Neurobiology at the Institute of Biology at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. His research is devoted to understanding molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the formation and specification of emotional memories. His special focus is on the analysis of local circuit processes in the context of the formation of engram cell assemblies in the hippocampus. He will contribute his expertise in the establishment and integrative analysis of rodent models for behavioral and memory research to the CRC.

In addition to the SFB1436, Prof. Stork is a member of the Magdeburg Collaborative Research Center SFB854 and the German Center for Mental Health in Magdeburg, and serves as a spokesperson for various neuroscientific graduate schools, including the IRTG1436 (this program), the CBBS graduate program and the GRK2413 (deputy spokesperson).

Prof. Dr. Marco Taubert

Marco Taubert is the head of the Cognition and Action Research group and chair for Training Science at the Otto-von Guericke University Magdeburg. His research focusses on training-induced structural and functional brain plasticity in humans. His expertise is in motor learning, the time course of tissue-specific plasticity and non-invasive brain imaging and transcranial stimulation methods.

Prof. Dr. med. Markus Ullsperger

Markus Ullsperger is full professor and head of the Department of Neuropsychology at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg since 2012 as well as a principal investigator (PI) at the Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS) Magdeburg. His research of about 20 years aims at understanding the structural, functional and neuro-chemical aspects of performance monitoring and cognitive control. To that end he’s using an integrative approach combining neuroimaging, EEG, computational modeling and pharmacological interventions in the healthy population but also in patients with neurological or psychiatric disorders.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Wolbers

Thomas Wolbers is the head of the Aging, Cognition & Technology group at the DZNE Magdeburg. By exploiting the unique potential of extended reality (XR) technologies, he has established an ambitious research program that (i) employs spatial navigation as a model system for understanding mechanisms of healthy and pathological ageing, (ii) develops XR based diagnostic tools to improve the assessment of cognitive health, and (iii) implements technology-based interventions to counteract emotional and cognitive deficits. In addition, he entertains international cooperations to broaden his research portfolio with computational modelling, software engineering and research on animal models of aging.

Dr. Gabriel Ziegler

Gabriel Ziegler is heading the modelling and neuroprognosis group at the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND). His work focusses on state-of-the art statistical approaches such as latent variable modelling of brain-behavioral relationships, longitudinal brain changes, and disease progression in ageing and dementia research using MRI. He has made innovative contributions in developmental cognitive neuroscience using multivariate, kernel methods, Gaussian Processes, dynamical systems and Bayesian inference. His working group implements MR-based predictive models for memory performance and develops multivariate functional and structural indices of brain maintenance. He is part of the in-vivo histology (hMRI) working group that establishes new analysis techniques for quantitative multi-modal MRI.