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 [at] unitn.it

Postdocs

Ettore Tiraboschi

I'm a biologist with experience in the field of biology and pharmacology of psychiatric disorders, neuronal plasticity, and Epilepsy. I'm interested in shifting my point of view from the biological aspects of neuroscience towards the study of the mechanisms underlying cognitive functions of the brain.

ettore.tiraboschi [at] unitn.it Download CV

Florencia Scarano

I am interested in perception, in how neural circuits process sensory information and govern behaviours. I like to study how behaviours are shaped by ecological and evolutionary factors, and how stimuli in the environment affect sensory capabilities and neural circuits of different animals. In my previous research, I did behavioural experiments, electrophysiological intracellular recordings and morphological reconstruction of neurons in order to study visual processing of movements in crabs. Currently, I am studying ant-plant interactions. By using optical neuro-imaging methods I study the influence of plant-derived neuroactive chemicals on the olfactory pathway in the ant’s brain.

florencia.scarano [at] unitn.it Download CV

Claire Duménil

I am a biologist working towards developing sustainable and environmentally friendly methods to protect crops and people from pest insects. My research interests are broad but currently revolve around understanding species interactions, notably how insects perceive their environment. I like to explore how the insect brain processes complex odours and enables insects to locate food and mates while avoiding danger. During my PhD I specialised in electrophysiology, namely single sensillum recording to study how the olfactory system encodes complex fruit odours in the Spotted Wing Drosophila. I now pursue the study using the latest optical and genetics tools and further explore how the system behaves under external pressure such as pesticides.

claire.dumenil [at] unitn.it Download CV

PhD students

Applications welcome for 2022 (call will be opened around March 2022) !

Postgraduate researcher

Simone Monachino

simone.monachino [at] studenti.unitn.it

Master's students

Martina Fava (University of Parma)

m.deivarajansuresh [at] studenti.unitn.it

Hamid Soleimani

hamid.soleimani [at] studenti.unipr.it

Matteo Franceschi

m.franceschi.2 [at] studenti.unitn.it

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

Giorgio Vallortigara - Animal Cognition and Neuroscience Laboratory, CIMeC

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

Paolo Fontana, Valeria Malagnini - Plant protection and biodiversity in agriculture or forestry unit, Fond. E. Mach, Pergine (TN)

Gianfranco Anfora - Centre Agriculture, Food, and Environment (C3A) and Chemical Ecology research group, Fond. E. Mach, S. Michele all'Adige (TN)

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

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

Nathan Weisz - Salzburg Brain Dynamics Lab, University of Salzburg, Austria

Luca Turin - Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research (IFBR), BSRC Alexander Fleming, Vari, Greece

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

Alumni

Amelie Cabirol - Postdoc

now Postdoc at the University of Lausanne in the Department of Fundamental Microbiology with Philipp Engel

Marco Paoli - Postdoc

now MSCA Fellow at CRCA/CNRS Toulouse

Damiano Zanini - Postdoc

now Postdoc at the University of Würzburg, Institute of Neurobiology and Genetics, in the group of Charlotte Förster

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

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)

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

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)

PhD from University of Groningen, Netherlands, in the Molecular Systems Biology group of Matthias Heinemann (2021)

Ben Timberlake - Master's student

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

now Postdoc at CIMeC with Katya Tentori

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

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