POSITIONS
|
Seit 2019 |
Professor (W3) for Neurobiology at the Institut of Developmental Biology and Neurobiology |
|
2015-2018 |
Groupleader (Emmy Noether Group) at the European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen |
|
2009-2014 |
Postdoc, Dept. of Neurobiology, Stanford University, with Dr. Thomas Clandinin |
QUALIFICATIONS AND CAREER
|
2009 |
PhD with Prof. Klämbt, Glial cell migration in the Drosophila PNS,
University of Münster, Germany |
|
2001-2005 |
Biology (Dipl.), University of Münster, Germany |
|
2001-2003 |
Chemistry (Sek.I/II.), Mathematics (Sek.I/II.), University of Münster, Germany |
ACTIVITIES IN THE RESEARCH SYSTEM
|
since 2026 |
Vice-dean for research, Faculty of Biology, JGU Mainz |
|
since 2020 |
Co-Coordinator Priority Program SPP2205 “Evolutionary Optimization of Neuronal Processing” |
|
since 2022 |
Organizer of the Crete meeting “Neural Circuits to behavior in Drosophila” |
|
since 2022 |
National jury “Jugend forscht” |
|
2025 |
Organizer Gutenberg Workshop “Flexibility and robustness of nervous system function” (with Carlotta Martelli and Vanessa Stempel) |
|
2026 / 2016 |
Symposium organization at FENS Forum |
|
2024 |
Workshop organization at Bernstein conference |
|
2023 / 2019 |
Workshop organization at the NWG meeting, Göttingen |
|
2021-2026 |
Equal Opportunity Officer, JGU Mainz |
|
2017 / 2020 / 2021 |
Bernstein conference workshop selection committee (Co-Chair 2x, Chair) |
|
2016 / 2017 |
Organizing Committee, Junior European Drosophila Investigators (JEDI) Meeting |
|
since 2015 |
Supervision of 10 dissertations, 15 MSc and 16 BSc students (completed only) |
RESEARCH FOCUS
Animals—from insects to humans—use visual motion detection to navigate their environment, catch prey, or escape predators. Because the perception of motion requires neural circuits that integrate visual information both spatially and temporally, it is considered a paradigmatic example for understanding brain function. We use the visual system of Drosophila to understand how the nervous system processes information. Using neurogenetic methods, physiological measurements of neuronal activity, modeling approaches, and behavioral experiments, we have investigated how motion information is processed from the single cell to the population level.
Currently, we on the one hand interested, how visual systems handle challenges of their natural environment, such as global motion patterns generated by self-motion or rapid changes in luminance. On the other hand, and inspired by recent connectome analysis, we have recently discovered that the connectivity patterns within the parallel units of the fly eye can be heterogeneous. These heterogeneous connectivity patterns lead to the same functional properties, meaning there are multiple implementations for the same function, exemplifying a degenerate system. We are generally interested how degeneracy influences both the robustness and flexibility of neural processing.
|
AWARDS AND ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS
|
2023 |
Primo loco W3 professor for Neurobiology and Genetics, University of Würzburg |
|
2022 |
ERC Consolidator Grant “Adaptive Vision” |
|
2018 |
Fellow of the Gutenberg Research College Mainz |
|
2017 |
Science Award of Lower Saxony |
|
2017 |
Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Award of the DFG / BMBF |
|
2016 |
ERC Starting Grant “MicroCyFly” |
|
2015 |
Bernhard Katz Lecture Award |
|
2015 |
Schilling Research Award of the German Neuroscience Society |
|
2014 |
Emmy Noether Fellowship of the DFG |
|
2014 |
North Rhine Westfalia (NRW) return fellowship (declined) |
|
2011-2013 |
Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship |
|
2011 |
PhD Award of the German Society for Developmental Biology |
|
2010 |
Stanford Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship |
|
2006-2008 |
PhD Fellowship, Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds |
RELEVANT RECENT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
1. Henning M, Ketkar MD, Lüffe T, Gohl DM, Clandinin TR, Silies M (2026)
Inhibitory columnar feedback neurons are involved in motion processing in Drosophila
eLife 14:RP108529 doi.org/10.7554/eLife.108529.3
2. Wernet M and Silies M (2026) Imprecision in vision - lessons from neural circuits in the fly.
BioEssays 48(3): e70122. doi.org/10.1002/bies.70122
3. Gür B, Ramirez L, Cornean J, Thurn F, Molina-Obando S, Ramos-Traslosheros G, Silies M (2024) Neural pathways and computations that achieve stable contrast processing tuned to natural scenes. Nature Communications 15, 8580. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52724-5
4. Cornean J, Molina-Obando S, Gür B, Bast A, Ramos-Traslosheros G, Chojetzki J, Lörsch L, Ioannidou M, Taneja R, Schnaitmann D, Silies M (2024) Heterogeneity of synaptic connectivity in the fly visual system, Nature Communications, 15: 1570.
doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45971-z
5. Ketkar MD, Shuao S, Gjorgjieva J, Silies M (2023) Multifaceted luminance gain control beyond photoreceptors in Drosophila, Current Biology, 33(13): 2632-2645
doi: 10.1101/2023.03.17.533132
6. Henning M, Ramos-Traslosheros G, Gür B and Silies M (2022) Populations of local direction-selective cells encode global motion patterns generated by self-motion. Science Advances 8(3): eabi7112 doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abi7112
7. Ketkar MD, Gür B, Molina-Obando S, Ioannidou M, Martelli C, Silies M (2022) First-order visual interneurons distribute distinct contrast and luminance information across ON and OFF pathways to achieve stable behavior. eLife 11:e74937. doi: 10.7554/eLife.74937
8. Ramos-Traslosheros G and Silies M (2021) The physiological basis of contrast opponency in motion detection in Drosophila. Nature Communications, 12: 4987.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24986-w
9. Ketkar MD, Sporar K, Gür B, Ramos-Traslosheros G, Seifert M, Silies M (2020) Luminance information is required for the accurate estimation of contrast in rapidly changing visual Contexts. Current Biology, 30: 657-669. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.12.038
10. Molina-Obando S, Vargas-Fique JF, Henning M, Gür B, Schladt TM, Akhtar J, Berger TK, Silies M (2019) ON selectivity in Drosophila vision is a multisynaptic process involving both glutamatergic and GABAergic inhibition. eLife, pii: e49373. doi: 10.7554/eLife.4937
|
