people

Head of the Individuality lab

Outside of the JEDI council, I lead the Linneweber Individuality Lab, founded in 2021 at the Institute of Biology at Freie Universität Berlin. Our research focuses on understanding the biological origins of behavioral individuality, using the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster as our primary model organism. By studying these seemingly simple animals, we aim to uncover the complex interplay between genetic, environmental, and stochastic factors that shape individual variation within all populations of animals. We are focussing on behavioral differences, but we also care for the orgins of other non-neuronal individual variation.

As a DFG Emmy Noether Group Leader, my team and I explore how developmental variability, neural circuit dynamics, and environmental influences interact to generate individuality. We employ a multidisciplinary approach, combining advanced techniques such as in vivo imaging, genetic manipulation, bioinformatics, machine learning, and quantitative behavioral analysis. These tools allow us to investigate the underlying mechanisms of variability at multiple levels, from molecular pathways to whole-organism behavior.

Through our work, we seek to contribute to a deeper understanding of how individuality arises and evolves, providing insights not only into animal behavior but also into broader biological principles creating variance across species. Using this approach we seek to spread a better understanding of individuals throughout the galaxy.

Head of the GutSense lab

I’ve always been fascinated by how the nervous system regulates animal physiology through interactions with other organs. My scientific journey began in Greece, where I completed my undergraduate studies, before moving to London for my PhD and postdoctoral training. Initially, I studied how the nervous system develops into a functional unit, but over time, I became increasingly interested in how it coordinates physiological changes in response to evolving internal needs.

In 2023, I established the GutSense team at the Paris Brain Institute (ICM). We focus on understanding the “ins and outs” of how the nervous system computes internal needs in response to external environmental cues, with a particular emphasis on the brain-gut axis function and its role in metabolic health.

Our approach integrates animal behavior, physiology, anatomy, and molecular function.

Head of the Gut maintenance lab.

Head of the Neural circuit mechanisms of memory re-evaluation lab

Head of the Nuclear dynamics and repetitive DNA in tissue homeostasis lab

Head of the Comparative Developmental Neurobiology lab

I am a group leader at the Institut Jacques Monod in Paris, France. I started my group three years ago and our research is focused on the evolution of neurodevelopmental mechanisms, in an effort to understand how the impressive neuronal diversity is generated over the days or weeks of embryonic development and how these developmental mechanisms have evolved over the millions of years of animal evolution. The questions that we address have been shaped by my prior research experience. I got interested in development as an undergraduate student, when I worked on understanding how silkworms regulate the expression of chorion genes during follicle development. During my PhD, I studied the evolution of regenerative capacity using appendage regeneration as a model the appendage regeneration of an amphipod crustacean, Parhyale hawaiensis. Finally, I got excited by neurobiology during my postdoctoral studies in the lab of Claude Desplan, where I studied the patterning mechanisms that specify neuronal types in Drosophila melanogaster and how neurons acquire their terminal molecular, physiological, and morphological characteristics once they are specified.

In our group, we combine different areas of expertise to tackle our big question: how do complex systems develop and evolve and, in the case of neuronal systems, how do they assemble into functional circuits that drive certain behaviors? We take an integrative approach that includes molecular biology, genetics, modeling, bioinformatics, and genetic tool development.

Head of the Understanding the End-of-Life team.

Trying to understand what ageing is, where it comes from and where it gets us, since 2005. Building the two-phase ageing framework since I first described the Smurf phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster . I started my research group "Understanding The End-of-Life" (UTELife) in 2018.

The core of the research project I am carrying is strongly transdisciplinary, from basic biology, genetics and physiology to bioinformatics and mathematical modeling.