Günther K.H. Zupanc
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Günther K.H. Zupanc (born 20 October 1958) is a
neurobiologist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial c ...
, researcher, university teacher, book author, journal editor, and educational reformer. He is a Professor in the Department of Biology at
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...
in Boston, Massachusetts.


Education

Günther Zupanc was born in
Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
in (then)
West-Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
. He graduated in Biology and Physics from the
University of Regensburg The University of Regensburg (german: link=no, Universität Regensburg) is a public research university located in the medieval city of Regensburg, Bavaria, a city that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university was founded on 18 ...
(Germany) with degrees equivalent to Bachelor’s and master's degrees. He received his Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the
University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
(1990), and he was awarded the habilitation (Dr. rer. nat. habil.) in Animal Physiology from the
University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...
(Germany) (1995).


Journalistic career

Before enrolling in college, Zupanc worked as a journalist for the
Münchner Merkur The ''Münchner Merkur'' (, literally "Munich Mercurius", i.e. the Roman god of messengers) is a German Bavarian daily subscription newspaper, which is published from Monday to Saturday. It is located in Munich and belongs to the Müncher Merkur ...
, a major daily newspaper in Munich, Germany, where he specialized in science writing. He also published numerous science articles in other newspapers and magazines. For one of his articles, he was awarded first prize in the contest ''Reporter der Wissenschaft'' as Germany’s best young science writer in 1980.


Academic career

Günther Zupanc was Research Assistant and Research Scientist at the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...
in La Jolla, California (1987–92), Junior Group Leader at the
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology Tübingen was located in Tübingen, Germany; it was founded as Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in 1954 as an offshoot of the Tübingen-based Max Planck Institute for Biology. From 1984 to 2 ...
in Tübingen, Germany (1992–97), Senior Lecturer (equivalent to Associate Professor) at the
University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
, U.K. (1997–2002), and Professor at the International University Bremen (now
Jacobs University Bremen Constructor University is an international, private, residential research university located in Vegesack, Bremen, Germany. It offers study programs in engineering, humanities, natural and social sciences, in which students can acquire bachelor's ...
) (2002–09). Since 2009 he has been Professor at
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...
in Boston, Massachusetts, where he also served as Chair of the Department of Biology (2009–12). Zupanc was Visiting Professor at the
University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...
, Canada (1994–97) and Visiting Scholar at the
University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
, the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, the
Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology The former Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology was located in Bulldern, Westphalia, Germany, moved to Seewiesen in 1957. It was one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society (Max Planck Gesellschaft). Background A working group was f ...
, the
Salk Institute for Biological Studies The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...
, the
Scripps Research Institute Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...
,
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
, and
Jacobs University Bremen Constructor University is an international, private, residential research university located in Vegesack, Bremen, Germany. It offers study programs in engineering, humanities, natural and social sciences, in which students can acquire bachelor's ...
.


Research

Zupanc has made important contributions to several disciplines within biology, including
neuroethology Neuroethology is the evolutionary and comparative approach to the study of animal behavior and its underlying mechanistic control by the nervous system. It is an interdisciplinary science that combines both neuroscience (study of the nervous syste ...
,
neuroanatomy Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defin ...
,
neuroendocrinology Neuroendocrinology is the branch of biology (specifically of physiology) which studies the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system; i.e. how the brain regulates the hormonal activity in the body. The nervous and endocrine ...
, and
developmental neurobiology ''Developmental Neurobiology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of neural development. It was established in 1969 as ''Journal of Neurobiology'', covering all of neuroscience, but when the scope become more specia ...
. In his early work, he showed that seasonal changes in specific behavioral patterns are paralleled by pronounced alterations in the structure of brain neurons that control these behaviors. His laboratory has extensively studied the behavior of weakly electric fish. Among others, these investigations led to the discovery of a novel behavioral pattern, the 'echo response'. As part of his efforts to establish the
brown ghost knifefish Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...
(''Apteronotus leptorhynchus'') as a powerful model organisms for the study of behavior and neural plasticity, his laboratory performed (in collaboration with the group of Jeffrey N. Agar of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Northeastern University) a ''de novo'' assembly, annotation, and proteomics validation of the central nervous system transcriptome of this species. Using the electric organ discharge of weakly electric fish as a neuroethological model system, Zupanc and his team were the first to employ a proteomics approach for large-scale identification of proteins involved in the development of a sexual dimorphism in behavior. The results of this research have implications beyond this study, suggesting that astrocytes play an important role in the regulation of the activity of neural oscillators, including those that control a sexually dimorphic behavior. In the field of neuroendocrinology, Zupanc and his collaborators succeeded in the cloning and pharmacological characterization of the first non-mammalian somatostatin neuropeptide receptor. His laboratory developed a novel ''in vitro'' technique to trace neural connections in the brain. This approach led to the discovery of numerous previously unknown connections in the brain of
teleost fish Teleostei (; Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Tel ...
. Since the early 1990s, Zupanc’s research group has pioneered the study of adult neurogenesis (the generation of new neurons in the adult central nervous system) in teleosts. He and his wife Marianne M. Zupanc introduced labeling of mitotic cells with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) to research on adult neurogenesis. Since then, this method has been used by numerous investigators working in this area. His research group performed the first complete mapping of proliferation zones in the adult brain of any vertebrate species (1995), and he and his associates introduced zebrafish (2005) and tilapia (2012) as model systems to study adult neurogenesis. To provide an explanation for the biological function of adult neurogenesis, he formulated the 'matching hypothesis.' According to this hypothesis, neurogenesis in the adult central nervous system is the result of the continuous generation of new muscle fibers and sensory receptor cells in the periphery. To maintain a constant ratio between the peripheral motor and sensory elements on the one side, and the central elements on the other, any numerical change in the periphery prompts a corresponding numerical alteration (production or loss of neurons) in the central nervous system. He and his team also demonstrated that the continued generation of new neurons in the adult central nervous system of teleost fish is closely linked to the enormous potential of this taxon to regenerate nervous tissue and to recover behavioral function after brain lesions and spinal cord injury. By employing a proteomics approach, Zupanc and his associates performed the first large-scale analysis in teleost fish of changes in global protein expression after brain trauma. As part of this effort, the team succeeded in the identification of a large number of proteins potentially involved in the regeneration of nervous tissue. In an expansion of their research on adult neurogenesis, the laboratory of Zupanc discovered the first vertebrate organism that lacks any of the hallmarks of brain senescence common to humans and all mammalian species examined thus far. In contrast to the latter, brown ghost knifefish (''Apteronotus leptorhynchus'') do not exhibit any significant age-related decline in stem/progenitor cell proliferation, neuronal and glial differentiation, or long-term survival of newly generated cells. The availability of this first vertebrate model of ‘negligible senescence’ provides unprecedented opportunities for a better understanding of the biology of aging and of the cellular mechanisms that protect brains from senescing. As the first investigator in the field of adult neurogenesis, Zupanc and his laboratory succeeded in generating three-dimensional, high-resolution maps of adult stem cells and their progeny, as well as molecular profiles of these cells, in the spinal cord. This work led to the development of a novel mapping approach (‘statistical mapping’), which enables researchers to produce global maps of central nervous system structures with cellular resolution. By integrating the big data set collected through such experimental work, Zupanc and his collaborators Iulian Ilieş and Rifat Sipahi (Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University) succeeded in building the first mathematical model of tissue growth in the spinal cord. This model provides an important theoretical framework for better understanding tissue growth in the intact and the regenerating central nervous system. In collaboration with Rifat Sipahi, Zupanc also constructed computational models that simulate normal and tumorous tissue growth ''in vitro''. Using this approach, the team has provided a theoretical explanation for the seemingly paradoxical effect that in lymphoma and prostate cancer cell-death-inducing chemotherapy sometimes induces tumors, instead of suppressing them. A characteristic feature of the research of Günther Zupanc is the application of a multidisciplinary approach — the techniques and concepts used in his investigations are taken from a wide range of disciplines, including molecular biology, cell biology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, computational neurosciences, behavioral neurobiology, analytical chemistry, biophysics, and mathematical modeling.


Editor of journals

Zupanc was Editor of the
Journal of Zoology The ''Journal of Zoology'' is a scientific journal concerning zoology, the study of animals. It was founded in 1830 by the Zoological Society of London and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. It carries original research papers, which are targeted t ...
(2007–11), and he has been Editor of the
Journal of Comparative Physiology A The ''Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the intersection of ethology, neuroscience, and physiology. It was established in 1984, wh ...
since 2008. He has also edited special issues of several scientific journals, including ''Adult Neurogenesis: A Comparative Approach'' for
Brain, Behavior and Evolution ''Brain, Behavior and Evolution'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering evolutionary neurobiology. It was established in 1968 with Walter Riss as the founding editor-in-chief; he remained the editor until 1986. Subsequent editors included ...
, ''Electric Fish: Model Systems for Neurobiology'' and ''Integrative and Comparative Neurobiology: Papers in Memoriam of Theodore H. Bullock (1915-2005)'' for
Journal of Comparative Physiology A The ''Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the intersection of ethology, neuroscience, and physiology. It was established in 1984, wh ...
, ''Towards a Comparative Understanding of Adult Neurogenesis'' (jointly with Luca Bonfanti and Ferdinando Rossi) for
European Journal of Neuroscience The ''European Journal of Neuroscience'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of neuroscience. It was established in 1989 with Ray Guillery (then at the University of Oxford) as the founding editor-in-chief. The ...
, and ''Adult Neural Stem Cells in Development, Regeneration, and Aging'' (jointly with James Monaghan and David L. Stocum) for
Developmental Neurobiology ''Developmental Neurobiology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of neural development. It was established in 1969 as ''Journal of Neurobiology'', covering all of neuroscience, but when the scope become more specia ...
. Zupanc served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the journals ''Brain, Behavior and Evolution'', ''Journal of Comparative Physiology A'', and ''Journal of Neurorestoratology''. He is currently a member of the Editorial Boards of ''Regenerative Medicine'' and ''Developmental Neurobiology''.


Book author

Günther K.H. Zupanc published his first book, ''Fische und ihr Verhalten'' (1982), while he was still an undergraduate student. This book appeared subsequently in an English edition under the title ''Fish and Their Behavior'' and became a bestseller. Zupanc is Editor of ''Praktische Verhaltensbiologie'' (1988), a laboratory manual used widely in German-speaking countries in biology education. His book ''Behavioral Neurobiology: An Integrative Approach'' (2004; third edition: 2019) is the most frequently adopted text in teaching behavioral neurobiology classes in the world. In a review by the journal ''Integrative and Comparative Biology'', it has been praised as “a milestone in the neuroethological literature”.


Educational reformer

Zupanc was among the founding faculty of the International University Bremen (now
Jacobs University Bremen Constructor University is an international, private, residential research university located in Vegesack, Bremen, Germany. It offers study programs in engineering, humanities, natural and social sciences, in which students can acquire bachelor's ...
), a unique private international university that combines features of the European Higher Education systems with the U.S. American Higher Education system. He played a leading role in defining and establishing the biology degree program at this institution. In 2009, this program received the top ranking of all universities evaluated by the ''Center for Higher Education Development'' (CHE). Zupanc has also published extensively on history of science, as well as on science policy issues, including biology teaching, online education, internationalization of higher education, integration of undergraduate students into research, student fellowships, student debt, privatization of higher education, research assessment, university rankings, ethics of part-time teaching contracts, and collaboration in the competitive world of science. Günther Zupanc is frequently sought as a speaker and advisor on science and higher education policy.


Personal life

Günther K.H. Zupanc is married to Dr. Marianne M. Zupanc, a microbiologist and high school teacher, with whom he has three children, Frederick, Christina, and Daniel.


Notes


External links


Günther K.H. Zupanc: faculty homepage

Laboratory of Neurobiology at Northeastern University

Behavioral Neurobiology: An Integrative Approach

Behavioral Neurobiology: An Integrative Approach: Ancillary Resource Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zupanc, Gunther K.H. 1958 births Living people Neuroethology