Hello everyone,

We're very excited to present this talk to you, all about the fast growing field of Connectomics. We'll be hosting a key actor and researcher in the subject, Moritz Helmstädter!

Prof. Moritz Helmstädter is the director of the Max Planck institute for brain research in Frankfurt, Germany.
His research focuses on the development of connectomics and communication maps of neural circuits in order to understand the higher processing and storage of sensory experience. His lab uses cutting edge techniques such as Electron Microscopy to decipher the complex structure and wiring of neurons. Pioneering work includes the reconstruction of a piece of mouse retina (2013) and recently of the layer 4 of the mouse somatosensory cortex (2019) which constitute the largest connectomes to date!

Brains are highly interconnected networks of millions to billions of neurons. For a century, we have not been able to systematically map these connectivity networks. Only recently, using novel electron microscopy techniques and machine-learning based data analysis, the dense mapping of neuronal networks has become possible at a larger scale. This new field of connectomics is still limited by technology and requires next-generation human-machine interaction for data analysis, but it is already starting to provide exciting insights into how neuronal circuits operate in the brain. Our goal is to make connectomics a high-throughput screening technique for neuroscience, applicable to the large circuits in the mammalian cerebral cortex. We are using connectomic data from the cerebral cortex to analyze brain-implemented algorithms, extract possible imprints of sensory experience, investigate the postnatal development of neuronal circuits and study connectome alterations in models of psychiatric disease.

This event is free, but priority will be given to members.