Fields Neuroscience Known for Optogenetics | Name Gero Miesenbock | |
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Born Gero Andreas Miesenbock
July 15, 1965 (age 58) ( 1965-07-15 ) Institutions University of Oxford
Yale University
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Cornell University Alma mater University of Innsbruck
Umea University Notable awards InBev-Baillet Latour International Health Prize (2012)
The Brain Prize (2013)
Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award (2013)
FRS (2015)
Heinrich Wieland Prize (2015) | ||
Interview with gero miesenbock frontiers of knowledge award in biomedicine
Gero Andreas Miesenböck (born 1965) FRS is Waynflete Professor of Physiology and Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (CNCB) at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
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Lights out an optogenetic sleep switch prof gero miesenbock
Education and early life
A native of Austria, Miesenböck was educated at the University of Innsbruck and Umeå University in Sweden. He graduated sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae from the University of Innsbruck Medical School. Following his Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1991, he undertook postdoctoral training with James Rothman.
Research and career
Miesenböck is known for his research on optogenetics. He was the first scientist to modify nerve cells genetically so that their electrical activity could be controlled with light. This involved inserting DNA for light-responsive opsin proteins into the cells. Miesenböck used similar genetic modifications to breed animals whose brains contained light-responsive nerve cells integrated into their circuitry, and was the first to demonstrate that the behavior of these animals could be remote-controlled.
The principle of optogenetic control established by Miesenböck has been widely adopted, generalized to other biological systems, and technically improved. Most of Miesenböck's work continues to be done with Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies), where it is possible to gain detailed insight into molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms of brain function that may relate to human health.
Before being appointed to the Waynflete Professorship in 2007, Miesenböck held faculty positions at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Yale University.
Awards and honors
In 2012 Miesenböck was awarded the InBev-Baillet Latour International Health Prize for "pioneering optogenetic approaches to manipulate neuronal activity and to control animal behaviour" . In 2013 he shared the Brain Prize with Ernst Bamberg, Edward Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, and the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine with Edward Boyden and Karl Deisseroth. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2015. His certificate of election reads:
In 2015 he received the Heinrich Wieland Prize "for his breakthrough concept of optogenetics and its proof of principle."
Miesenböck was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2008, and a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, United Kingdom in 2012, the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2014, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2016.