The lab is heading to Cornell!
Starting this summer, and after 11 wonderful years in Munich, the Portugues Lab will be starting a new adventure at the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior (NBB) at Cornell University […]
Ot is Doc
Ot is Doc. Doc is Ot. Who is Ot? Ot is Doc! Ot Prat just defended his thesis entitled “Sensory Representations of Visual Stimuli in the Zebrafish Brain” and he […]
How does visual input affect the heading direction network?
In our latest lab preprint (https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.13.628331), Ryosuke presents “visual landmarks” to larval zebrafish and shows that the heading direction (HD) network that has obsessed us recently tethers to the visual […]
Lab preprint on the anatomy of the interpeduncular nucleus
If you are just like us, you have probably spent years wondering about the structure of the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN). The wait is over! Read our new bioRxiv preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.09.617353. […]
New lab preprint on visual inputs into the heading direction network
The representation of visual motion and landmark position aligns with heading direction in the zebrafish interpeduncular nucleus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.25.614953v1 Briefly – we show that different visual signals that are important for […]
FENS-Kavli PhD Thesis Prize for Luigi
At the 2024 FENS Forum held in Vienna from June 25 to June 29, Luigi was awarded the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence (FKNE) PhD Thesis Prize. Luigi’s thesis is entitled: […]
Portugues Retreat 2024
Hong, a visiting researcher from the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, brought a unique perspective to our annual Portugues Lab retreat in Berchtesgaden, Germany. […]
Virginia’s Graduation
Virginia is now a PhD! It is wonderful to see someone grow, succeed and become an independent scientist, and that is exactly what Virginia has done over the last 6 […]
CSHL 2023 Imaging Course
The CSHL 2023 Imaging Course was a tremendous success. Hagar, Ot and Ruben spent 3+ weeks as part of a group running the course, which had 16 students. As always, […]
Portugues Lab retreat 2023
Our lab retreat (June 18th – June 23rd) was held at the TUM research station in the Alps. We had a packed program full of scientific talks, cooking, activities, games […]
The 1st Portugues lab Fixathon!
In our lab we build our own microscopes and write our own software. This prompted us to start a new tradition in which lab members focus their energy on fixing […]
Heading Direction Network in Fish
We have recently identified a gabaergic network in the anterior hindbrain of larval zebrafish that tracks their heading within the environment. This is truly an allocentric representation: when the fish […]
1st Munich Brain Day
It was a great incredible experience to organise and be a part of the very first Munich Brain Day – an initiative, spearheaded by the Munich Center for Neurosciences and […]
Cajal behavior course satellite
We are excited to be a host satellite of the Cajal course, Modern Approaches to Behavioural Analysis. This course combines online lectures and onsite exercises with local TAs. Focusing on the tool […]
Summer school season is over
Cajal Course: Interacting with Neural Circuits This summer Emanuele went to the Cajal Summer Course “Interacting with Neural Circuits” in the wonderful Lisbon as a student. There, he learned principles of in vivo all-optical interrogation experiments […]
Paris Optical Imaging and Electrophysiological Recording in Neuroscience
One of our Ph.D. students, Shuhong Huang, recently attended the summer school in Optical Imaging and Electrophysiological Recording in Paris. Here’s his feedback from this fantastic experience: “I am glad […]
COSYNE 2022
One of our PhD students, Luigi Petrucco, recently presented our work on identifying a heading direction network in the larval zebrafish at COSYNE 2022. Look out for the manuscript coming […]
The Lab celebrates spring & loosening regulations!
After a very long time, the whole lab is back to in-person meetings! The first one was celebrated by enjoying some amazing pizza, refreshments, and early-spring weather. While enjoying these […]
Oligodendrocyte precursor cells sculpt the visual system by regulating axonal remodeling
A collaboration from the lab is out! Did you ever wonder what all the oligodendrocyte precursors in the brain are up to when they don’t make myelin? They fine-tune circuits! […]
Functional and ultrastructural analysis of reafferent mechanosensation in larval zebrafish
The ability to differentiate between external sensory inputs and reafferent inputs that arise from one’s own locomotion is imperative to navigate environments. This was explored in a study done in […]
A cerebellar internal model calibrates a feedback controller involved in sensorimotor control
Check out our most recent work from Daniil A. Markov, Luigi Petrucco and, Andreas M. Kist, who investigated the role of the cerebellum in long-term motor adaptation using behavioral experiments […]
Vilim is now Dr. Vilim
On Friday June 25th Vilim Štih successfully defended his PhD thesis: congratulations Vilim. The defense was held via Zoom, but Vilim gave his talk from the lecture theater in Biederstein […]
Preprint on gating of mechanosensory reafferent feedback
Iris Odstrcil’s paper from the Engert Lab on how the larval zebrafish deals with self-stimulation of its own lateral line is out on the bioRxiv. This is a great example […]
Brainrender collaboration is out in eLife
Luigi’s collaboration with Federico Claudi and Adam Tyson from the labs of Troy Margrie and Tiago Branco at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is out in eLife: Visualizing anatomically registered data […]
OPC collaboration
Our collaboration with the Czopka Lab is out on the bioRxiv. The study looks at the non-myelinating role that oligodendrocyte precursor cells may be playing in the optic tectum of […]
MS paper published
The manuscript Phagocyte-mediated synapse removal in cortical neuroinflammation is promoted by local calcium accumulation from the Merkler, Misgeld and Kerschensteiner labs appeared in Nature Neursocience. It was a pleasure to […]
BrainGlobe Atlas API paper is published
BrainGlobe Atlas API: a common interface for neuroanatomical atlases is out in The Journal of Open Source Software. We were happy to be able to contribute to this work together […]
Mushroom body collaboration published
We collaborated with Siju and Sophie from Ilona Grunwald Kadow’s lab on the study of dopaminergic neurons in the fly mushroom body. It is available now in the journal Current […]
Calcium sensor collaboration published
Subach’s group from Russia developed FGCaMP7, a novel calcium indicator that contains a subunit from fungi which prevents its interaction with intracellular calmodulin. This ratiometric sensor can detect active and […]
Temporarily distributed lab
Physical isolation not a reason to stop doing science. Exciting data analyses, crazy new ideas, discussions, online courses, participating in virtual conferences, and virtual coffee breaks. Our lab is still […]
Pre-print on cerebellar function
Larval zebrafish can adapt their swimming behavior in response to changes in the environment in two ways. Firstly, they can adapt their behavior within a single swimming bout in response […]