Summary of Current Visitor Projects

Projects listed in chronological order

• Janelia Farm Single Cell Consortium: Developing New Methods to Dissect In Vivo Mechanisms of Transcriptional Regulation
  SEPTEMBER 1, 2006 - DECEMBER 31, 2008
  VISITORS: Robert Tjian (HHMI investigator and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UC Berkeley), Robert Singer (Chair, Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine), Xavier Darzacq and Olivier Bensaude (Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris) HOST: Sydney Brenner (senior fellow)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: This project brings Robert Tjian and his colleagues together at Janelia, where they use Janelia's imaging capabilities to image fluorescently labeled single molecules as they assemble on the transcription initiation complex in cultured cells.
• New Behavioral Assays for Drosophila
  JANUARY 1, 2007 - DECEMBER 31, 2008,
  (now in year 2)
  VISITOR: David Anderson (HHMI investigator and Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology)
  HOST: Gerry Rubin
  PROJECT SUMMARY: The scientific focus is to study Drosophila behavior, specifically aggression. First, an assay for aggression in the fly will be established; this will then be used to screen for defects in aggression using the Janelia collection of Gal4 driver lines developed in Rubin's laboratory.
• Construction and Characterization of Transgenic RNAi Lines to Inactivate 1,000 Drosophila Genes with Nervous System Functions
  JANUARY 1, 2007 - DECEMBER 31, 2008
  (now in year 2)
  VISITORS: Norbert Perrimon (HHMI investigator and Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School) and Charles Zuker (HHMI investigator and professor of biology and of neuroscience, University of California, San Diego)
  HOST: Gerry Rubin
  PROJECT SUMMARY: This is the second (and final) year for a collaboration between two HHMI investigators and Gerry Rubin on an infrastructural project with very specific and concrete goals: to develop gene inhibition reagents to target about 1,000 genes that have relevance to CNS function. These include genes involved in neurotransmission, connectivity and path finding, behavior, ion channels, and transcription factors preferentially expressed in the nervous system. In the first year, technology was developed to support the project and the production of the reagents themselves has begun. The second year will see the completion of the collection and some phenotypic characterization. The project also stands as the basis for a large NIH grant proposal by Perrimon to construct similar reagents for the rest of the fly genome.
• Large-Scale Recordings of Neurons in the Intact Cortex
  JUNE 1, 2007 - MAY 31, 2008, later years expected.
  VISITOR: Gyorgy Buzsáki (professor, Rutgers University)
  HOST: Jeff Magee (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Gyorgy Buzsáki will collaborate with Jeff Magee and several others on the design, prototyping, and testing of new silicon-based multiprobe electrodes for in vivo electrophysiology. Harald Hess (APIG) as well as an outside consultant will also participate. Electrodes are prototyped using a dual-beam electron microscope/Gallium ion beam device. They are then sent for fabrication from silicon wafers at a contract facility. This provides a rapid cycle for design and testing before committing to the high volume and cost of the wafer. This project is particularly crucial for groups attempting this in Drosophila for the first time (Vivek Jayaraman, fellow, and visiting scientist Michael Dickinson), but also serves several labs here that use rodents in their studies.
• Novel Approaches to Controlled Gene Expression in the Mouse Nervous System
  JUNE 1, 2007 - MAY 31, 2008, later years expected.
  VISITOR: Thomas Südhof (HHMI Investigator and professor of molecular genetics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas)
  HOST: Alla Karpova and Sean Eddy (group leaders)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: The focus of this project is to develop new methods to express transgenes in specific locations in the mouse brain. This technology is well advanced in Drosophila and other invertebrate models, but has lagged in the mouse. The ability to specifically express activity reporters, cell tracers and reagents to manipulate neural activity is crucial to the full exploitation of the mouse as a genetic model to study the brain.
• Connectivity of Excitatory Neurons in the Mouse Whisker Sensorymotor System
  AUGUST 1, 2007 - JULY 31, 2008,
  (additional years expected)
  VISITOR: Gordon Shepherd (assistant professor, Northwestern University)
  HOST: Karel Svoboda (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Gordon Shepherd, Svoboda, and a postdoctoral associate focus on the use of light-activated caged glutamate to map receptive fields for neurons in the mouse brain.
• MtDNA Nucleoid Dynamics in Models of Neurodegeneration
  JANUARY 1, 2008 - MARCH 31, 2008,
  VISITOR: Dan Bogenhagen (professor of pharmacological sciences, SUNY Stony Brook)
  HOST: Eric Betzig (group leader) and David Clayton
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Dan Bogenhagen, together with a postdoctoral associate, comes to Janelia in order to use super-resolution imaging techniques developed in the Betzig lab to study the mechanisms of nucleoid replication in mitochondria.
• Examination of Circuits Formed by Model Systems of Neurons in Drosophila
  JANUARY 1, 2008 Ð DECEMBER 31, 2008,
  (additional years expected)
  VISITOR: Ian Meinertzhagen (professor, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia)
  HOST: Dmitri Chklovskii (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Ian Meinertzhagen, Dmitri Chklovskii, and others at Janelia Farm will focus on the assembly of a precise reconstruction of the second optic lobe of the Drosophila brain (the medulla). Meinertzhagen is an expert in electron microscopic neuroanatomy as he has completed the reconstruction of the first optic lobe (the lamina). This work not only provides a direct advance towards the large Janelia goal of producing a complete wiring diagram for the fly brain, but also aims at developing computational and other tools to greatly accelerate the process.
• A Pilot Study to Explore Multistable Perception by Drosophila
  JANUARY 1, 2008 - MARCH 31, 2008,
  VISITOR: Daw-An Wu (postdoctoral fellow, Vision Science Lab, Harvard University)
  HOST: Michael Reiser (fellow)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Daw-An Wu will collaborate with Michael Reiser to undertake exploratory experiments in an attempt to detect multistable perception in Drosophila. In this case they will focus on the unification of the images generated by the two eyes, using flight orientation behavior as an assay.
• Wiring Diagram of Lamina Neuropil in Drosophila
  FEBRUARY 1, 2008 - JANUARY 31, 2009,
  VISITOR: Gonzalo de Polavieja(professor, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid)
  HOST: Dmitri Chklovskii (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Professor de Polavieja and his student will collaborate with Dmitry Chklovskii. The scientific focus of the project is to develop and test automated neural reconstruction techniques using the lamina region of the optic lobe of the Drosophila brain. This will synergize with the Meinertzhagen/Chklovskii visitor project that will focus on the structure of the medulla region of the optic lobes. In addition, Meinertzhagen's group has reconstructed two laminar cartridges, so this part of the fly brain is an excellent place to develop and test automated methods.
• Social Behavior in Rodents
  FEBRUARY 1, 2008 - JANUARY 31, 2009,
  VISITOR: Zachary Mainen (group leader, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal)
  HOST: Alla Karpova (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Zachary Mainen will collaborate primarily with Alla Karpova and her postdoc Dougal Gowanlock Tervo. The scientific focus is on developing an animal model of reciprocity in rats with the aim of eventually studying the neural circuits that underlie this task. Mainen is a leader in the study of rodent behavior and Karpova and Tervo have a strong interest in these questions.
• The Neuronal Basis of Walking and Climbing Control in Drosophila
  FEBRUARY 1, 2008 - JANUARY 31, 2009,
  (additional years expected)
  VISITOR: Roland Strauss(professor of neurobiology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany)
  HOST: Julie Simpson (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Roland Strauss plans to use reagents which are uniquely available at Janelia (new Gal4 expression driver lines) to search for and then begin to characterize the neural circuits that allow a fly to choose when a gap is small enough to cross by walking. This process involves the integration of sensory data, decision-making, and then motor planning. Strauss is an expert in this area with extensive experience and publications in fly neurobiology and behavior. Julie Simpson has a strong interest in these questions. The Rubin lab will supply Gal4 driver lines.
• Functional Characterization of Interneurons in the Ventral Nerve Cord of Drosophila larva
  FEBRUARY 1, 2008 - APRIL 30, 2008,
  VISITOR: Marta Zlatic (Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, now working at Columbia University with Wes Grueber)
  HOST: Julie Simpson (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Marta Zlatic will return to Janelia to continue her project on the neural circuits underlying larval motion. The scientific focus is to use reagents that are uniquely available at Janelia (new Gal4 expression driver lines) to study circuits involved in controlling larval behavior.
• Spatial Memory and Thermal Sensory Integration in Drosophila
  FEBRUARY 1, 2008 - JANUARY 31, 2009,
  VISITOR: Charles Zuker (HHMI Investigator and professor of biology and of neuroscience, University of California, San Diego)
  HOST: Michael Reiser (fellow)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: This project will bring Charles Zuker and his post-doc (Tyler Ofstad) to Janelia to collaborate with Michael Reiser. They will focus on developing a model system for the study of spatial memories to dissect the neural correlates and encoding of spatial memories. A second goal is to investigate the mechanisms by which Drosophila perceive temperature changes and to characterize thermal influences on fly navigation.
• Optical Control of Olfactory Circuits in the Mouse
  MARCH 1, 2008 - FEBRUARY 28, 2009,
  (later years expected)
  VISITOR: Thomas Bozza (assistant professor of neurobiology and physiology, Northwestern University)
  HOST: Dmitry Rinberg (fellow)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Thomas Bozza and Dmitry Rinberg will focus on assigning functionally specific murine Olfactory Receptor (OR) genes to specific odorants using Channelrhodopsin, and light induction in a behavioral assay and then to use this knowledge to map the connections of those specific OR gene expressing receptor neurons to mitral cells in the olfactory bulb. This will connect Bozza's expertise and experience with OR genes to Rinberg's expertise in mouse behavior and electrophysiology.
• Structure/Function Studies in the Control of Locomotion by the Drosophila Thoracic Ganglion
  MARCH 1, 2008 - FEBRUARY 28, 2009,
  VISITOR: Michael Dickinson (professor of bioengineering, California Institute of Technology)
  HOST: : James Truman (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: Michael Dickinson will return to Janelia to collaborate primarily with James Truman. They will study how the small number of neurons in the Drosophila brain with descending projections into the thoracic ganglion act, control, and integrate both major modes of locomotion in the adult: walking and flight. The four specific aims include a screen for behavioral defects using the Janelia collections of Gal4 driver lines (being generated in the Rubin and Simpson labs), the development of nanotetrode probes for extracellular recordings, anatomical characterization of the descending neurons at the EM level and the identification of the neural lineages involved. Dickinson is a leader in the study of insect locomotion and Truman has a strong interest in these questions.
• Electronic Design Automation Tools and Biological systems
  SEPTEMBER 1, 2008 - JUNE 30, 2009,
  VISITOR: Louis Scheffer (fellow, Cadence Design Systems)
  HOST: : Dmitri Chklovskii (group leader)
  PROJECT SUMMARY: This project will bring Lou Scheffer, a senior researcher in Electronic engineering at Cadence Design Systems, Inc., to work for 10 months at Janelia to collaborate with Dmitri Chklovskii. Scheffer is an expert in integrated circuit design, verification, and testing. The scientific focus is to translate the experience developed in chip design to the analysis of neuronal circuits. In particular, we are interested in the methods for "reverse engineering" of electronic circuit function from their physical structure. We hope to use these methods in the deduction of function from the connection diagrams that will be mapped at Janelia for the fly (and other) brains.