NCCR-Synapsy

The Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

Joint NCCR Synapsy – IRCN “22q” Workshop, Jul y 6-7, 2019, Tokyo, Japan

This past weekend, a joint NCCR Synapsy-IRCN workshop took place University of Tokyo. Several Synapsy PIs from UNIGE attended and presented their research (Profs. Alexandre Dayer, Stephan Eliez, Marie Schaer, Camila Bellone, Alan Carleton). Copy number variations in chromosome 22q Read more…


Public Lecture – Alan Carleton

public conference

June-3 Public lecture by Professor Alan Carleton as part of his promotion to full professor in the Department of Fundamental Neurosciences Title : «Neural circuit symphony vs. cacophony in health and disease» LOCATION UNIGE – Centre Médical Universitaire (CMU) Auditoire Read more…


Resynchronizing neurons to erase schizophrenia

Carleton_re-synch

By increasing the excitability of a subpopulation of “defective” inhibitory neurons, researchers at the UNIGE restore the synchronization of neural networks in the hippocampus, and are thus able to suppress certain behavioural symptoms associated with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia, an often severe Read more…


Some genes evolved from an immune function to an olfactory role

Olfactory diagram

Researchers demonstrate how some genes evolved from an immune function to an olfactory role in some mammals. Mammals possess several lines of defense against microbes. One of them is activated when receptors called Fprs, which are present on immune cells, Read more…


To have flair: Practice makes perfect!

Alan Carleton link to video

The human brain has the ability to recognize and process a very wide range of sensory stimuli, from which it builds a mental representation. But do these representations change over time? Can we learn to classify and interpret stimuli more Read more…


Winners of the Pfizer Prize for Research 2017

Pfizer prize 2017

Alan Carleton, Nixon Abraham, Olivier Gschwend Pfizer Award 2017 – 25 young Swiss researchers were awarded for their outstanding scientific work, including three teams from the HUG and UNIGE. These are two joint HUG/UNIGE teams in clinical research and a Read more…


Better learning through distinguishing

Olfactory bulbs

A study published in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience describes work led by the University of Geneva’s (UNIGE) Faculties of Medicine and Sciences, on the indisputable role of the olfactory bulb in mammal brains’ ability to discriminate between smells. Read more…


Discovery of a neuronal population that filters sensory information

sensory-olfactory

In the center:”Panache shaped” neurons population sent by olfactory sensory cells. Our five senses collect data for complex perceptual systems in the brain allowing us to make sense of the world around us. The stimuli entering the brain in the Read more…


How a wine taster gets a good nose

wine-flavors

Professor Carleton’s group have just revealed that olfactory training leads to enhanced odorant detection and discrimination. They show that this happens by plasticity at early stages of odour processing in the sensory periphery in adults and endures after training. The Read more…