Huetteroth lab

Interests/Research

Our workhorse is the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, but we have worked with other critters in the past (Manduca, Tribolium, Aethina, Collembola,…) and intend to stay open-minded in the future!

Utilizing the ever-expanding genetic toolbox for Drosophila we employ a combination of anatomy, behavior, genetics and functional imaging to address our research questions:

1. Feeding regulation and caloric memory formation

We are studying feeding regulation in Drosophila, and the effect of internal states like hunger on locomotion and food intake. We are especially interested in how caloric information is sensed by the organism to influence behavior. How is this information relayed to higher brain circuits and integrated with internal states to influence memory formation? How does it affect sensory perception? How can the pleiotropic role of neuropeptides in signal mediation be disentangled?

2. Voluntary passive movement

Many animals expose themselves to passive movement like swinging, sliding and spinning. Do insects do the same if they have the choice, and if yes - why? We are trying to find answers to these questions to better understand the evolutionary advantage of intentional exafference.

Curriculum vitae

Positions

• Studies of Biology, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, and University of Edinburgh, UK
• Diploma in 2002
• Ph.D. work, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, in the lab of Prof. J. Schachtner
• Ph.D. degree (Dr. rer. nat.) 2008
• Postdoctoral fellow, University of Massachusetts Medical School, MA, USA and University of Oxford, UK in the lab of Prof. Scott Waddell (2009-2014)
• ZIF Marie-Curie Postdoctoral fellow, Konstanz University, Germany (2014-2017)
• Independent principal investigator, Leipzig University, Germany (2017- 2021)

Honors and awards

• 2007 JSPS summer program fellowship, Tokyo, Japan
• 2009 Marine Biol. Laboratory (MBL) summer course “Neurobiology”, MA, USA
• 2012 Research fellowship, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, UK
• 2013 Oxford Martin School Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
• 2013 Grass fellowship, MBL, Massachusetts, USA
• 2018 Dujardín prize, ANN, Altleiningen, Germany

Kontakt: Dr. Wolf Huetteroth