People

Principal Investigator | Postdocs | PhD students | Master's students | Interns | Collaborators | Alumni

Principal Investigator

Albrecht Haase

I am interested in fundamental processes underlying reception, information coding, processing, and learning. Being a physicist by formation, I am especially attracted by two aspects in these fields: exploring the overlap between neuroscience and physics, where functional processes can be tested regarding possible underlying fundamental mechanisms (e.g. proposed by quantum biology) and the application of experimental techniques which go beyond standard neuroscience approaches (nonlinear microscopy, all optical stimulation/readout). My team is formed by neuroscientists, biologists, engineers, and physicists that like to work in an interdisciplinary environment on a variety of questions to be tested in small brain models.

albrecht.haase@unitn.it

Postdocs

What can insects do, and why do they do it? These have always been questions driving my research interests in insect cognition. I am a neuroscientist and in my previous research, I studied honey bees and bumble bees cognition with a behavioural perspective, investigating their learning, numerical abilities and their sleeping behaviour, as well as the impact of different environmental stressors on the capacity of insects to interact with their environment or perform cognitively demanding tasks. Currently, I am studying the role of gut microbiota on behaviour and cognition. By using optical neuro-imaging methods, I am also investigating the link between microbiota and brain neural circuits using the honey bee as animal model.

maria.bortot@unitn.it

PhD students

Alan Oesterle

alansven.oesterle@unitn.it

Having a background in ethology has instilled in me a deep curiosity about the cognitive processes of non-human animals and their true potential, if only they were given the opportunity to be fully tested. My main motivation is to help bridge the perceived gap that often separates the human mind from all other minds. After years of studying birds of prey, I began working with bees, and I continue to be fascinated on a daily basis by their remarkable abilities. Following an in-depth exploration of how cerebral lateralization affects their decision-making (foraging) and motor skills (flight times), I am now investigating how global warming may impact their cognitive and memory capacities. At the same time, I am exploring how the gut microbiota influences the brain functions of these essential pollinators.

davide.liga@unitn.it

Master's students

Master's students of all life and natural sciences are welcome to join the lab, some of the proposed projects can be found here and a list of past theses is here. Further project ideas are welcome.

Interns

Interns are welcome for projects of at least 6 months

Collaborators

Renzo Antolini - External consultant, former Head of the Biophysics and Biosignals Laboratory, Department of Physics

Uri Hasson - Information and Integration lab, CIMeC

Giorgio Vallortigara - Animal Brain Cognition lab, CIMeC

Graziano Guella - Bio-organic Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Physics

Sergio Angeli - Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Paolo Fontana, Valeria Malagnini - Beekeeping and apoidea, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Pergine (TN)

Gianfranco Anfora - Entomology and Agricultural zoology Lab, Centre Agriculture, Food, and Environment (C3A)

Martin Beye - Institute for Evolutionary Genetics, University of Düsseldorf, Germany

Julie Carcaud, Jean-Christophe Sandoz - Evolbee Research Team (Evolution, Genomes, Behavior and Ecology), Centre National de 'la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France

Paul Szyszka - Department of Zoology, University of Otago, New Zealand

Giovanni Galizia - Neurobiology group, University of Konstanz, Germany

Luca Turin - University of Buckingham, UK

Stefano Mancuso - International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, University of Firenze

Franco Faoro - Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences - Production, Landscape, Agroenergy, University of Milano

Donato Antonio Grasso - Myrmecology Lab, Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma

Massimo Nepi - Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena

Riccardo Cabassi, Roberto Verucchi, Franca Albertini Albertini - CNR Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism

Ilia A. Solov'yov - Quantum Biology and Computational Physics Group, University of Oldenburg, Germany

Alumni

Claire Dumenil - Postdoc

now Postdoc at the University of Bolzano in the General and Applied Entomology group with Sergio Angeli

Florencia Scarano - Postdoc

Ettore Tiraboschi - Postdoc

Amelie Cabirol - Postdoc

now PI at the Center for Integrative Biology at the University Paul Sabatier Toulouse, France

Marco Paoli - Postdoc

now Junior professor at the Center for Taste and Feeding Behaviour, CNRS, Dijon, France

Damiano Zanini - Postdoc

now Imaging scientist at the Multiscale ImmunoImaging Unit, Humanitas Research Hospital, Milano

Anna Eriksson - Postdoc

now at the Communication Group at Fondazione Mach Research and Innovation Centre

Elisa Rigosi - PhD student/ Postdoc

Brain-behavioural olfactory asymmetries in Apoidea. (2013)

now Researcher at the Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden, in the Functional zoology group

Virginia Belloni - Postdoc

Quentin Baudouin - Postdoc

Sebastian Moguilner - Postdoc

Luca Del Torre - PhD student

Mirko Zanon - PhD student

Implementation of an all-optical setup for insect brain optogenetic stimulation and two-photon functional imaging (2020)

now Postdoc at CIMeC with Giorgio Vallortigara

Mara Andrione - PhD student

Olfactory representation in the honey bee antennal lobe: Investigations on a filter’s functions and dysfunctions. (2016)

now Postdoc at IMP - Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria, with Manuel Zimmer

Neloy Kumar Chakroborty - Visiting scientist

now at Thapar School of Liberal Arts & Sciences, TIET, Patiala, Punjab

Matteo Franceschi - Master's student

Development of a new platform for automated insect conditioning experiments (2021)

Luana Leonardelli - Master's student from the University of Bologna

In vivo honeybee brain imaging to study the olfactory system’s role in the processing of mechanosensory information (2021)

Nicola Calliari - Master's student

Object segmentation and recognition techniques for synapse counting in 3D super-resolution imaging (2021)

Simone Monachino - Master's student

Fundamental mechanisms of sensory information processing: functional and effective connectivity of olfactory coding (2020)

Mukilan Deivarajan Suresh - Master's student

Olfactory modulation of defensive behaviour in honey bees (2020)

now PhD student at the University of Edinburgh

Gianluca Segata - Master's student

Tracking bee antenna motions to test brain lateralization (2020)

Sarah Chehaimi - Master's student

A quantitative analysis of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens' vibro-acoustic communication (2020)

Mohammadreza Soltanipour - Master's student from SISSA

Information theoretic measures of tactile decisions in the rat barrel cortex (2020)

Miriam Nodari - Master's student

Analysis of dynamics and connectivity in the olfactory system of the honey bee brain (2019)

Sara Bariselli - Master's student

A new genetic approach to perform calcium imaging in apis mellifera olfactorycenters (2019)

Anita Girelli

Protein interactions and cluster formation in presence of multivalent ions (2018)

Angela Albi - Master's student

Calcium imaging analysis of spatial and temporal coding of odorants in the honeybee brain (2016)

now PhD student at the International Max Planck Research Schools for Organismal Biology in Konstanz, Germany, with Iain Couzin

Paolo Guerra - Master's student

Development of an all-optical setup for optogenetics experiments (2016)

Ben Timberlake - Master's student

Non-associative learning in the honeybee: effects of odor exposure on antennal lobe anatomy and function (2015)

Marco Zanoli - Master's student

Two-photon lifetime imaging system based on high frame-rate SPAD array (2015)

Martina Puppi - Master's student

Effects of imidacloprid insecticide on the learning and memory of the honeybee: a behavioural study (2015)

Zahid Safraz - Master's student

A SPAD-based sensor for spectrally resolved life time-detection imaging in two-photon microscopy (2014)

Giulia Zanini - Master's student

Towards optical biopsy of human skin lesions: a two-photon microscopy feasibility study. (2014)

now Postdoc at the University of Maryland

Cristina Traversa - Master's student

Design and construction of the odor-revolver: computer controlled olfactometer for experiments with bees (2014)