Alexander Gottschalk is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology at the

Goethe University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

in Frankfurt, Germany.

Scientific career

Alexander Gottschalk studied chemistry, biochemistry and immunology at

in Frankfurt, Philipps University in Marburg and

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, 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 researc
group
is located at the Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences.

Research

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 Optogenetics is a biological technique to control the activity of neurons or other cell types with light. This is achieved by expression of light-sensitive ion channels, pumps or enzymes specifically in the target cells. On the level of individ ...

. Working with

Georg Nagel Georg Nagel (born 24 August 1953 in Weingarten, Germany) is a biophysicist and professor at the Department for Neurophysiology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. His research is focused on microbial photoreceptors and the development of op ...

, he developed optogenetic tools to modulate the second messenger cGMP. He is the coordinator of Priority Programme SPP1926, 'Next Generation Optogenetics' of the German Research Foundationbr>

Prizes and Awards

2005 Career Development Award of the

Human Frontier Science Program } The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) is a non-profit organization, based in Strasbourg, France, that funds basic research in life sciences. The organization implements the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) and ...

2008 Schram Award

References

External links

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Recent analysis of ''C. elegans'' behavioral circuits
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottschalk, Alexander 21st-century German biologists Physiologists Neurochemists German neuroscientists Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt Year of birth missing (living people) Living people