Johannes Felsenberg

Fluorescent neurons on black background. We're hiring! PhD Student

🚨 We are #hiring a PhD Student to study cerebellum-like circuits in #Drosophila.

Please spread the word!

www.groschner-lab.org/join

#Neuroscience #PhD

🚨 Postdoc opportunity to study memory or nutrition in #Drosophila 🪰

I am looking for a candidate to support for a 3 year Addison Wheeler Fellowship application lnkd.in/e2rvNf5x

Interested? Please send a CV & cover letter with brief research outline by 20th February to vincent.croset@durham.ac.uk

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our panel discussion to mark the International Day of Women & Girls in Science. We're grateful to our speakers & moderator for an engaging conversation that highlighted the importance of inclusive leadership, diverse perspectives and sustained commitment. #IDWGS

Can we make brains “smarter”? By boosting mitochondrial metabolism in neurons of memory circuits, we improved memory in flies and mice. Thrilled to see this work out - congrats to @amrapalianjali.bsky.social for spectacular work, and to all lab members for invaluable contributions!

YouTube video by Cell Press Target-independent retinotopy in Drosophila / Curr. Biol., Feb. 3, 2026 (Vol. 36, Issue 5)

Check out this amazing video summarising the recent discovery from Robin Hiesinger's lab on target-independent formation of retinotopic maps in the fly's visual system: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhZP...

Time-Sounds-Memory-Psychophysics in Drosophila? Suewei Lin and colleagues, WTF. I couldnt be more impressed. #myhero www.imb.sinica.edu.tw/en/faculty/p...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

Very thankful for this thoughtful dispatch by @shaisrael.bsky.social sky.social and Moshe Parnas about our work. Learning and memory: Forgetting to remember: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

This is who runs this account

Several fly larvae are crawling on an agar surface.

The second paper from the lab is now available on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We discovered that cannibalistic behavior in fly larvae is social-context dependent. Larval groups avoid dead conspecifics; individuals show high attraction. They only do it when no one is watching 😉

The video abstract is amazing. And very cool work - tool use in cows! Certainly challenges a lot of uniqueness arguments. Always lots to learn.

Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
#neuroscience #science

A Hyperkinetic-dependent redox-sensing mechanism operates specifically in dorsal fan-shaped body neurons to promote sleep Sleep is a universal and tightly regulated process that is controlled by both circadian and homeostatic mechanisms1. Work in Drosophila melanogaster h…

Congratulations to my friend Anissa Kempf for this paper emphasizing the need to use the proper genetic tools when linking sleep effects to specific neurons. This was needed. Well done
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Maybe of interest: within Swiss Neuroscience we try to track hires. This is probably incomplete, but likely not too far off.

www.gendergap-neuro.ch

There is still time to apply! See linked document for details.

Our new 2p microscope got freshly installed and tested this week and is now waiting for you :)

The Neurobiology of Mental Health 2026 from May 17 – May 21 in Thun, Switzerland.

Join leading scientists for a 3.5-day #LakeConference discussion on: "The Neurobiology of Mental Health" at the level of genes, cell types, organoids, circuits, networks and brain systems. Learn more & apply by January 31: https://lakeconferences.org/conf/1ed63fdb-de0c-4a56-a8b3-1f72f93d30ea

Your gut has a sex, and it matters! 🔥
In females, the ovary sends a relaxin hormone signal to enteric neurons, switching on gut enlargement and increased feeding after mating.
So excited my postdoc work is finally out as a preprint 🥳
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Genetic sex of enteric neurons enables ovarian relaxin to gate maternal gut plasticity Animals must align intestinal plasticity and feeding with reproductive state, yet the checkpoint that gates these adaptations is unknown. Here we show that an ovary-to-enteric-neuron axis gates the on...

📣First preprint of the lab📣 Did that really happen?😅

Enteric neurons, aka somatic postmitotic cells, must hold on to their sex identity tight, to deliver a tuned response to signals from the ovary that instruct the animal to engage sex-matched behavioural programmes.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Thrilled to start 2026 with our latest preprint, in which we dive into a dedicated forward-walking circuit in the fly brain: doi.org/10.64898/202.... This effort was spearheaded by the fantastic @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social with help from a bunch of talented people in the lab.

Congrats to all the grant recipients!
Extra happy for Burak and Dennis from my lab.
And in this context: we’re hiring—open postdoc positions in the lab. Feel free to reach out if you’re interested.

On the left, the image shows a schematic of a fly head, ring neurons and EPG neurons together with some calcium imaging frames. On the right is a photo of a fly on a ball in virtual reality and another schematic of a VR system.

📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P!

⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026

Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd...

#neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc

Re-exposure to reward re-evaluates related memories To adapt behavior in changing environments, animals must continuously re-evaluate previously learned associations. This flexibility of memory systems …

Carolin Warnecke together with Hanna, Dennis, Bene & Kerstin from my lab show that re-exposure to reward diminishes multiple associated olfactory memories.

We’re hiring 2 postdocs—DM/email me for details. #Postdoc #Hiring

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I’m very grateful to the FMI, the tenure committee, inspiring colleagues, and all the hidden supporters who made this possible. Huge thanks to past and present group members for their curiosity and creativity. Excited for the next chapter.

Landing and takeoff sensorimotor pathways illustrated alongside fly drawings showing behavioral responses.

How do animals channel sensory information into motor pathways to generate flexible behavioral output? Excited to share a new preprint addressing this question by leveraging the new #maleCNS connectome, behavioral experiments, and in-vivo recordings: doi.org/10.64898/202.... A long🧵...

YouTube video by The Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research How AI can help reveal the workings of the brain

Huge congratulations to @fzenke.bsky.social on his promotion to Senior Group Leader! His team uses AI-powered models of neural networks to uncover how dynamic brain connections enable new memories. Learn more about his research in this video👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xDu...

Deadline for this post-doc position in my lab extended to Jan 11th!

Join us for the second seminar in the online Metabolism in Development and Physiology series next Thursday.

Two exciting talks lined up from different career stages.

🚨 We are recruiting a full-time Research Programmer to push forward several exciting machine learning projects in the lab!

Work on computational behavior and joint neural/behavior models. Start date flexible, can be a pre-grad-school position or longer term.

recruiting2.ultipro.com/SCR1003TSRI/...

Absolute rockstar!

Emergence and Self-organisation across biological scales! I hope you are ready for next year conference! It will be an incredible event April 20-22 2026. The first of many #LakeConference organised by
@ehannezo.bsky.social @alleninstitute.org and James Sharpe @embl.org

Applications are open for the #LakeConference on Modeling Life from Cells to Tissues – co-hosted with Circuit Neuroscience Basel!

📆 April 20-22, 2026
📍 Seattle, USA
🧠 All career stages welcomed.

Apply to attend by December 12: https://alleninstitute.org/events/aics-lake-2026/