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Welcome to the Neuroscience and Neurodegeneration Research Group

The Neuroscience Research Group investigates neurophysiological and pathophysiological processes in the brain. It is headed by Prof. Bert Sakmann in an advisory role and lead by Dr. Christian Hölscher.

The main focus of research of the group is to analyse the processes in the brain that underlie Alzheimer’s disease. In particular, the recently described connection between type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease is under investigation, and several novel drugs that have been developed by the diabetes research group at UU are tested in models of Alzheimer’s disease. Drugs that have been developed to treat type 2 diabetes have shown very promising protective effects in models of Alzheimer’s disease.

A second research focus is the analysis of neuronal activity in memory formation and information processing. This is the focus of Prof. Sakmann research who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1991 for his contribution to the development of patch clamp techniques. These techniques allow the measurement of neuronal activity on a molecular level. Behavioural tasks and in vivo recording of neuronal activity are other techniques that are used to analyse neuronal activity in the working brain. Furthermore, anatomical studies of neurons in the cortex are under way to identify dendritic changes after learning and in disease.

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