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Alexander Gottschalk

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Alexander Gottschalk is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

Scientific career

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Alexander Gottschalk studied chemistry, biochemistry and immunology at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Philipps University in Marburg and University of Edinburgh, UK. His PhD thesis (Dr. rer. nat.) was conducted in the laboratory of Reinhard Lührmann at the University of Marburg. As a postdoctoral fellow, he worked with William R. Schafer at UC San Diego to study the nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans. In 2004, he became an independent research group leader in Frankfurt. In 2010, he was awarded a Heisenberg-Professor position and became Full Professor for Molecular Cell Biology and Neurobiochemistry in 2016. His research group is located at the Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences.

Research

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Alexander Gottschalk studies the neuronal control of behavior in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In 2005, he demonstrated that neuronal expression of the light-gated channel Channelrhodpsin-2 allows controlling the movement of an intact animal with blue light, making him one of the pioneers of Optogenetics.[1][2] Working with Georg Nagel, he developed optogenetic tools to modulate the second messenger cGMP.[3] He is the coordinator of Priority Programme SPP1926, 'Next Generation Optogenetics' of the German Research Foundation.[4]

Prizes and awards

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References

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  1. ^ Nagel, Georg; Brauner, Martin; Liewald, Jana F.; Adeishvili, Nona; Bamberg, Ernst; Gottschalk, Alexander (2005). "Light Activation of Channelrhodopsin-2 in Excitable Cells of Caenorhabditis elegans Triggers Rapid Behavioral Responses". Current Biology. 15 (24): 2279–2284. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2005.11.032. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 16360690.
  2. ^ Zhang, Feng; Wang, Li-Ping; Brauner, Martin; Liewald, Jana F.; Kay, Kenneth; Watzke, Natalie; Wood, Phillip G.; Bamberg, Ernst; Nagel, Georg; Gottschalk, Alexander; Deisseroth, Karl (2007). "Multimodal fast optical interrogation of neural circuitry". Nature. 446 (7136): 633–639. Bibcode:2007Natur.446..633Z. doi:10.1038/nature05744. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 17410168. S2CID 4415339.
  3. ^ Gao, Shiqiang; Nagpal, Jatin; Schneider, Martin W.; Kozjak-Pavlovic, Vera; Nagel, Georg; Gottschalk, Alexander (2015-09-08). "Optogenetic manipulation of cGMP in cells and animals by the tightly light-regulated guanylyl-cyclase opsin CyclOp". Nature Communications. 6 (1): 8046. Bibcode:2015NatCo...6.8046G. doi:10.1038/ncomms9046. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 4569695. PMID 26345128.
  4. ^ "Next Generation Optogenetics: DFG Schwerpunktprogramm SPP 1926Next Generation Optogenetics". DFG Schwerpunktprogramm SPP 1926. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Gottschalk". Goethe-Universität Frankfurt (in German). Retrieved 26 July 2023.
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