Molecular basis of sensory biology
Contact
Speaker of the RTG
Prof. Dr. Karl-Wilhelm Koch
Tel.: +49-(0)441-798-3640
Raum: W4 1-137
E-mail:
Scientific Management
Dr. Kristin Tietje
+49 (0)441 798-3882
W10 0-007
Scientific Management
Anne Depping
+49 (0)441 798-2451
V03 M 3-335
Finance and Administration
Gabriele Ahrens
+49 (0)441 798-3336
+49 (0)441 798-193336
W4 1-167
Molecular basis of sensory biology
Welcome to the website of the DFG-Research Training Group 1885 – Molecular Basis of Sensory Biology
The Research Training Group "Molecular Basis of Sensory Biology" was established 2013 at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The project was finished in March 2023.
Here you can find a selection of some of our activities
The RTG aims at investigating how environmental stimuli are sensed and processed by different organisms. Animals have developed a complex variety of sensory receptor cells for physical and chemical stimuli in response to millions of years of evolutionary pressures. Sensory receptor cells process the incoming information by intracellular molecular components leading to a cellular response. The research program of the RTG involves thesis projects that aim at understanding the common principles of sensory processing from a molecular biological, chemical and physical perspective. It includes research topics on a wide variety of senses including vision, hearing, magnetoreception and chemoreception with a strong input from chemistry, biophysics and physics. Topics will address activation processes of receptor molecules, receptor-coupled signal transduction pathways and molecular switch mechanisms, but will also include studies on visual and auditory dysfunction. We expect mutual benefit from physical model systems and from biological concepts, which might lead to the development of new technical applications (e.g. biomedicine).
We address these central questions using different experimental strategies based on tools available in molecular and cellular biology, but input from biophysical techniques and the design and synthesis of chemical compounds (e.g. for fluorescence studies) are central to many projects as well. Consequently, the study programme will provide the students with strong skills in biology, chemistry and physics, thereby facilitating close collaboration and mutual exchange of ideas between these disciplines. It is further important that the students acquire background knowledge and practical experience with a range of different technologies, including those that are not directly related to their specific thesis project. The institutional framework in place at the University of Oldenburg and the educational programme of the RTG guarantees achieving these aims. Co-supervision of thesis projects by at least two principal investigators, special training workshops in techniques given by the principal investigators and visiting scientists, a network of existing (already funded) research and project groups, and their multidisciplinary colloquia are central parts of the qualification concept. PhD students will also enrol in the PhD programme “Neurosensory Science and Systems” that has been in place in Oldenburg since 2008.
Cooperating SFB 1372
Magnetoreception and navigation in vertebrates: from
biophysics to brain and behaviour