This project investigates how mechanisms of learning and brain plasticity differ between young and older adults using Visual Perceptual Learning (VPL) as a model. VPL refers to an improvement in a visual skill with repeated visual experience or training. VPL will be studied using behavioral training protocols combined with techniques such as eye-tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS).

Helicenes are a group of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with screw-shaped structures that give rise to characteristic optical and optoelectronic properties. Both expansion of the helical structure and its enrichment with boron have been proved to enhance these properties, enabling multiple applications, for example in OLEDs and OFETs. This project focuses on the synthesis of helicenes integrating both features as potential new materials for organic electronics and fundamental studies.

Earth's magnetic field guides migratory birds over vast distances. Despite decades of research, the mechanisms behind avian magnetosensitivity remain unclear. Recent studies suggest cryptochromes play a role, but proving this is challenging. Our project explores whether rhodopsins, previously overlooked, also contribute. We aim to understand these photoreceptors at a molecular level and enable behavioural experiments with transgenic birds.

Certain ant species exhibit wound care and rescue behaviours towards injured nestmates, thereby enhancing their survival and sustaining the colony's workforce. Despite these benefits, it remains unclear how ecological and evolutionary factors have shaped these social behaviours. By using interdisciplinary methods from behaviour and theoretical biology, we aim to elucidate the causes and consequences underlying the evolution of wound care and rescue behaviours.

The human brain has the remarkable ability to flexibly generalize knowledge from specific learning experiences to new situations. However, the mechanisms underlying such generalization processes are still not fully understood. This project aims at characterizing the cognitive and neural representations that underlie successful generalization processes and to identify factors that influence them (e.g., sleep). As such, we hope to gain a better understanding of how we make sense of the continuously changing world around us.

Elastocaloric cooling utilizes stress-induced crystallographic phase transformation which releases or absorbs latent heat upon stress loading or removal. It is a promising next-generation solid-state cooling due to its high caloric effect. However, one of the disadvantages is the huge electric actuator required. This project aims to integrate actuators driven by low-grade heat to reach the goal of reducing driver-to-refrigerant mass ratio and zero electricity input.

π-Extended carbazoles exhibit intriguing electronic and optical properties that make them attractive for diverse applications such as OLEDs, OFETs, and solar cells. In this project, new methods for the synthesis of these N-heterocycles will be explored and their application as organic materials will be intensively investigated.

Insects face a wide range of light intensities, which gradually change throughout the daily cycle, and suddenly change between celestial conditions or habitat types. To understand how insects extract relevant information from such dynamic visual scenes, it is necessary to study both sensory processing and behaviour, which influence each other reciprocally. To disentangle this closed-loop, I am studying three key-stages: (i) adaptive behaviour, (ii) natural inputs, and (iii) sensory processing.

Viruses are much more than parasites with a negative impact on the host. They can infect all domains of life and have different types of relationships with their host: From a parasitic to even beneficial relationship. One potentially beneficial relationship in favor of their host cell is the ability of some viruses to prevent superinfection by other viruses, which is known as superinfection exclusion (SIE). However, our understanding of this mechanism is rather scare. This project aims to decipher the molecular mechanism underlying SIE in haloarchaeal viruses using molecular and virological techniques.

Monomeric or particle-based multimeric subunit vaccines are widely used to induce humoral immune responses that protect from disease. However, how antigen valency and spacing affects B cell activation and antibody production is not well understood. Using a malaria vaccine antigen as model, the project combines DNA-origami-based experimental work with mathematical modeling to define how the biophysical parameters of antigen presentation and antibody affinity affect B cell activation.