Apr 30, 2025
Gero Miesenböck was one of 30 international members who—along with 120 regular members—were elected to the US National Academy of Sciences on 29 April 2025. In a reaction, Gero said: ‘Beyond the delight of being invited into the company of distinguished colleagues, it is nice to form a thread in the international fabric of science, especially with everything that’s going...
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Apr 2, 2025
Sleep is the only ubiquitous behaviour whose function remains unknown. The Miesenböck group is looking for—and finding—clues to the mystery of sleep in the properties of sleep-inducing cells in the brain. Nervous systems delegate the task of detecting and correcting sleep deficits to a minority of specialized cells. Like circuit breakers, these neurons keep a watch on a sleep-relevant aspect of their own physiology and...
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Jan 24, 2023
Professor Gero Miesenböck, DPAG's Waynflete Professor of Physiology and Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, is one of two scientists to be awarded the 2023 Japan Prize "for their development of methods that use genetically addressable light-sensitive membrane proteins to unravel neural circuit function". Head of Department Professor...
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May 21, 2020
For his foundational work on "the development of optogenetics, a technology that has revolutionized neuroscience", Gero Miesenböck is to receive the 2020 Shaw Prize in Life Sciences and Medicine. The Shaw Prize is regarded as the preeminent international recognition for scientific achievement among awards originating in Asia. Miesenböck was named the winner of the prize, along with Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University and Georg Nagel of...
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Jul 17, 2019
The 2019 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize has been awarded to four scientists for pioneering work in the field of optogenetics, 'a revolutionary technique that uses light and genetic modification to control the activity of cells in the brain.' Gero Miesenböck is recognised 'for the first demonstrations of optogenetic control of neural activity and animal behaviour and for discoveries proving the...
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Apr 11, 2019
Sleep deprivation elevates mitochondrial reactive oxygen species in sleep-promoting neurons, which register this rise with the help of a redox-sensitive ion channel. The resulting changes in electrical excitability close a molecular feedback loop that leads to the induction of sleep. It is no accident that oxygen tanks carry explosion hazard labels: uncontrolled combustion is dangerous. Humans and animals face similar risks when...
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Apr 8, 2019
Gero Miesenböck is among the recipients of the 2018 Rumford Prize. He is honoured for the invention of optogenetics, along with colleagues responsible for subsequent refinements. The Rumford Prize, awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is one of the oldest scientific prizes in the United States. It recognises contributions to the fields of 'heat and...
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Mar 28, 2019
Gero Miesenböck was awarded and ERC Advanced Grant to investigate the homeostatic regulation and biological function of sleep. The project will seek to identify the molecular changes that drive sleep-inducing neurons in the fly brain into the electrically active state. Gero said: 'I’m thrilled this worked out—especially since this may have been the last chance for UK residents to apply. The ERC is one of the very few funding agencies...
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Oct 17, 2018
Gero Miesenböck is giving the 2018 Francis Crick Lecture at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge on 24 October. The Crick Lecture, named in honour of the late LMB Nobel Laureate, is one of a series of named lectures organised...
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Apr 26, 2018
Subthreshold changes in membrane voltage represent accumulating evidence before a choice. The transcription factor FoxP sets neuronal integration and behavioural decision times. Decisions take time because the information needed to make them is rarely available all at once but must be gathered sequentially. We know from our own experience that decisions tend to be quick when the choice is unambiguous but protracted when evidence is...
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Jan 4, 2017
Gero Miesenböck will give the 2017 Weizmann Memorial Lectures at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The annual lecture series commemorates the founder of the Institute, Dr. Chaim Weizmann. The lectures are intended to review the state of the art and the newest developments in a chosen field. The series usually consists of two...
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Aug 15, 2016
Gero Miesenböck has won the Massry Prize 2016 for his work on optogenetics. He shares the award with Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University and Peter Hegemann of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Optogenetics uses light-operated switches to control the electrical impulses of nerve cells. The ability to remote-control neuronal function has had a profound impact on...
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Aug 3, 2016
Sleep-promoting neurons switch between electrical activity and silence as a function of sleep need. The switch is operated by dopamine and involves the antagonistic regulation of two potassium channels. Sleep is one of the great biological mysteries. Each night we disconnect ourselves from the world for 7 or 8 hours—a state that leaves us vulnerable and unproductive. Yet despite these risks and costs, we do not know what sleep is...
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Jan 26, 2016
Gero Miesenböck has won a BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award for the development of optogenetics. He shares the € 400,000 prize with Edward Boyden of MIT and Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University. Optogenetics, according to the citation, “has revolutionized the study of brain function and is now used by neuroscientists around the world.” Understanding the brain’s function “would require the development of a technology...
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Sep 15, 2015
Gero Miesenböck will receive the Heinrich Wieland Prize 2015 for his conception and first experimental demonstration of optogenetics.
Named after the 1927 Chemistry Nobel Laureate Heinrich Wieland, the annual award recognises outstanding research on biologically active molecules and systems. It is among the most prestigious international science prizes awarded in Germany.
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May 1, 2015
The Royal Society is the national Academy of science in the UK. Its Fellowship is made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers, and technologists from or living and working in the UK and the Commonwealth. The Society’s fundamental purpose, reflected in its founding Charters of the 1660s, is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use...
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May 22, 2014
Fruit flies take time to deliberate when faced with difficult decisions. The process is linked to FoxP, a gene associated with cognitive development and language in humans. Have you ever agonized over a difficult decision? Reflecting before committing to a choice is considered a hallmark of intelligence. In a study published in the journal Science, CNCB researchers report that fruit flies also ‘think’ before they...
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Feb 23, 2014
Sparse odour coding by the Kenyon cells of the mushroom body generates a large number of precisely addressable locations for the storage of odour-specific memories. Anyone who associates the smell of freshly baked apple pie with happy childhood memories or the smell of disinfectant with a flu jab knows the power of associative memory, especially of associations with odours. But how do we attach distinct memories to the millions of...
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Feb 19, 2014
A small group of neurons put flies to sleep when they need to rest. The body uses two mechanisms to regulate sleep. One is the body clock, which attunes humans and animals to the 24 hour cycle of day and night. The other mechanism is the sleep ‘homeostat’: a device in the brain that keeps track of your waking activity and puts you to sleep when you are tired and need to reset. This mechanism is purely internal. When it...
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Oct 2, 2013
Gero Miesenböck is one of this year's recipients of the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine. The award, presented by the Rosenstiel Center of Brandeis University in Massachusetts, is in recognition of the recipients' ‘contributions to the discovery and applications of optogenetics’. In addition to Gero Miesenböck, Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University and Edward S. Boyden of the Massachusetts Institute of...
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Sep 9, 2013
A CNCB double bill—papers from the Miesenböck and Waddell groups—appears in the September 4 issue of Neuron. Click here to read Moshe Parnas, Andrew Lin, Wolf Huetteroth and Gero Miesenböck on 'Odor discrimination in Drosophila: from neural population codes to behavior.' Read more
Apr 27, 2013
Professor Gero Miesenböck, Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford, has been awarded The Brain Prize 2013 "for the invention and refinement of optogenetics." Miesenböck was the first scientist who modified nerve cells genetically to produce light-responsive pigments. By shining light on the pigment-producing cells he caused them to become electrically active. The function of the nerve cells could...
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