The Biological Society of Cyprus organized a special event in June 2023 entitled: Awards of Excellence in Biology 2023. We congratulate Dr. PPoirazi for being declared an honorary member of the Biological Society of Cyprus, alongside Dr. Patrikios, Dr. Koumenis, Dr. Drosatos, and Dr. Trifilli.

With the aim of giving a current image of Mediterranean science, the Seneca Foundation – Science and Technology Agency of the Region of Murcia offers the public its third exhibition on women scientists, this time as part of the European project MEDNIGHT – Mediterranean Researchers’ Night. It is a collection of short biographies with new, […]

A new Special Issue is available in Neuroscience: Dendritic contributions to biological and artificial computations, by guest editors Dr. Yiota Poirazi & Dr. Jackie Schiller. This SI includes fascinating articles by numerous leading experts on dendritic research. This SI was inspired by and will be featured at the EMBO Workshop on Dendrites, that will take […]

Neuroscientist and Einstein Visiting Fellow Panayiota Poirazi builds computational models of the tree-like dendrites that exist in the brain to better understand their role and to translate their functions into artificial knowledge. One of her aims is to teach algorithms to base their learning on prior knowledge in the same way that humans do. Read […]

Anthi Apostolopoulou received a highly competitive Marie Curie European Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at out lab. Her project is titled: ”GenieEffect – GABAergic INterneurons signaling ImbalancE; A promising target underlying PFC-dependent cognitive flexibility defects”. Anthi aims to investigate how inhibitory neutransmission dysfunctions affect physiology and cognitive flexibility. We look forward to seeing her succeed in […]

Whether you are a junior or senior researcher in Neuroscience, if dendrites are important in your work, don’t miss DENDRITES 2022! After being postponed due to the pandemic, the conference is now open for registration, and attendance will be in person! We hope to see you this May in sunny Heraklion! Find out more details […]

We are overjoyed to announce that Ioanna Pandi, a PhD student working in our lab, has been selected as an ELife ambassador for Europe – a prestigious position that only 21 others can lay claim to this year. Working with 127 other ambassadors from all around the globe, Ioanna will be striving to enact positive […]

The Dendrites lab is pleased to announce that Spiros Chavlis, a very talented postdoctoral fellow and colleague, has been selected as a Teaching Assistant for the IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo (isiCNI). He is one of the six people selected from over 60 highly qualified applicants. Congratulations Spiro, you make us proud!

The fourth instalment of the successful Neuromatch conference starts tomorrow! Focusing on Computational Neuroscience, and featuring esteemed speakers from across the world, the conference promises to be a major hit – and we’re not just saying so because we’ve had a hand in organizing it! Check out the responses on Twitter:   The wait is […]

Dr Yiota Poirazi reflects on this past year’s lessons and shares her not-so-direct trajectory in pursuit of her passion for neuroscience. Reminding us that science is a team game, she shares actionable steps to improve representation in science. Read more

EJN introduces Dr Panayiota Poirazi (you can read her entire interview here) as the next scientist for the series Women in Neuroscience. This series aims to brings visibility and recognition to women scientists in our community; you can find all of the previous profiles here.

Our new opinion article in Current Opinion in Neurobiology is out! Spiros Chavlis & Yiota Poirazi discuss how dendritic properties, namely their anatomy, nonlinear integration properties and plasticity can inspire new developments in deep learning algorithms and hardware implementations of spiking networks. Link to the paper.

Our collaborative study with the lab of Matthew Larkum that was published earlier this year  in Science Magazine has made into the Year’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology by Quanta Magazine. In a nutshell: Dr. Albert Gidon in the Larkum Lab (add link to the Larkum lab) discovered that L2/3 neurons in the human brain have a new type […]

Half the credits ain’t fair! It’s been more than 37 years of science in the making, since Bienenstock, Cooper and Munro proposed their groundbreaking theory of synaptic plasticity to account for seemingly disparate experimental results on feature selectivity emergence in the feline visual cortex. Indeed, their plasticity rule, among a handful of others (Hebbian, STDP, […]

  Together with a group of amazing scientists, we recently wrote a Perspective on how Deep Learning principles may help advance Neuroscience and vise-versa. It started as heated discussions in a meeting in Barbados last February and resulted in an article that seamlessly integrates our very different views. We hope you enjoy it as much […]

The Foundation’s distinguished grant is limited to ~ 8 postgraduates per year, aiming to support and secure the full-time continuation of their studies and research. May you achieve your PhD goals to their fullest extent, Kostas! We are looking forward to the fruits of your research.

Άλλη μια Βραδιά του Ερευνητή είναι εδώ! Σας προσκαλούμε να συμμετάσχετε στη σημερινή εκδήλωση που διοργανώνει το Ίδρυμα Τεχνολογίας και Έρευνας, του Ηρακλείου Κρήτης, με σκοπό την προβολή και επικοινωνία των ερευνητικών δραστηριοτήτων που διεξάγονται εδώ στο ευρύ κοινό. Όπως κάθε εργαστήριο, έτσι κι εμείς, θα έχουμε τη δική μας γωνιά, και θα παρουσιάσουμε στους επισκέπτες […]

The Einstein Foundation Berlin was founded in 2009 by the State of Berlin, with a mission to establish the city as a centre of scientific excellence. To this aim, an independent commission awards researchers of high international calibre with research grants, so they can visit and collaborate with fellow investigators in Berlin. Research Director at IMBB-FORTH, Dr. […]

Dendritic non-linearities as chiefs in command It’s been 16 years since Dr. Poirazi, head of the lab, got to publish her research on the non-linear functions of pyramidal neurons; a theoretical prediction that, however prominent may be now, was against all odds and dogmas. Despite its success, the concept has yet to escape the realm of […]

Superb news! Georgia Soursou and Maria Karatsoli, MSc students in our lab, were granted with funding to organize a Brain Awareness Week workshop, as part of the Dana Foundation global campaign to increase public’s awareness of the benefits stemmig from brain research efforts. Save the dates: March 14, 2019 6:30PM – March 15, 2019 8:30PM, and […]

Georgia Soursou, MSc student in our lab, successfully applied to and will attend the “Human Brain Atlas: Neuroscientific basis, tools and applications – School”. She’s also received financial support to do so from the high-esteemed organiser, namely the Human Brain Project. Students in our lab are always encouraged to pursue opportunities as such!  

Dr. Poirazi receives the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award by Hans-Christian Paper, president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The ceremony took place during the 47th Symposium for Research Award Winners of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bamberg, Germany March 28th-30th 2019.

The laboratories of Dr. Losonczy at Columbia University in New York, and ours, Dr. Poirazi at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of FORTH, joined forces in order to explain how neurons flexibly lay down or recall memories. The study, which was recently published in Neuron, is the first to provide visual evidence that a particular type […]

Yiota Poirazi receives the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel International Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The award is bestowed to nominated researchers outside Germany, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to science. The official award ceremony will take place in Bamberg, Germany 28-31 March 2019. IMBB Press Release: https://www.imbb.forth.gr/news/181218_Poirazi_Humboldt-Award.pdf 2018 Award Symposium: https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/56076901.html

Congratulations to Ioanna Pandi, a Master’s student conducting her thesis in our lab, for being selected to attend the highly competitive IBRO-SIMONS Computational Neuroscience Imbizo (2019) school in Cape Town, South Africa. It is a unique opportunity for her to get to learn more on cutting edge research, meet top-notch experts in the field, and associate with peers from varying scientific / cultural backgrounds! Learn […]

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation announced the awarding of its 2018 NARSAD Young Investigator Grants valued at more than $13.8 million to 200 of the world’s most promising young scientists. Among them is our long-time fellow Dr. Papoutsi, to whom we offer our warmest congratulations and best wishes for her research! Below is the Brain & […]

Science meets art, art meets science! ERCcOMICS, a creative and ambitious science-communication initiative that exploits the power of visual storytelling to innovate the way European research is communicated, has featured dEMORY as a notable European Research Council (ERC) funded research project, and recently came up with the above illustration, inspired by Dr. Poirazi’s TEDx talk on the cellular mechanisms […]

Challenging the point-neuron dogma is no easy feat, but hard work pays off!   In this instance, the editors of Nature Comm. selected our recent paper on the said topic to be featured on journal’s highlights.   We must extend our warm congratulations to the main authors, Alexandra Tzilkivaki and Dr. Kastellakis.   In case you haven’t read it yet, here’s the link, off […]

Dr. Kastellakis’s research on the cellular mechanisms that facilitate learning and memory is gaining momentum among peers in the field. On 13-14 July, he gave an invited talk on the subject, with the title: “Linking memories with synaptic capture and excitability”, at the “Neuroplasticity: from Bench to Machine” Workshop, organized by the University of Surrey. If interested to learn more, take a […]

The 3rd EMBO Workshop on Dendrites was completed with great success. We are thankful to our speakers for their inspiring presentations and all participants for making this a scientifically stimulating and fun event!

We are delighted to announce that Alexandra Tzilivaki has been awarded with the “Maria Mihail Manassaki” scholarship, based on her academic excellence as a postgraduate student of the Biology Department, University of Crete, during the 2016-2017 term. Alexandra has been distinguished over the years by her devotion, unchallenged motivation, and skillful diligence ever since joining our lab […]

23 ERC grantee researchers, Dr. Poirazi included, 3 Nobel Laureates, and MEPs met at Strasbourg on 31 May to address current science policy issues and shape the future directions of European Research.         Read more details on the meeting at the below links:   FORTH News Announcement in Greek European Parliament Press Release

Alexandra Tzilivaki, PhD candidate at Charite Medical School Berlin and IMBB FORTH, was recently appointed as Next Generation Woman Leader by McKinsey & Company. Her application was screened by McKinsey based on academic excellence, work experience, extracurricular activities and leadership profile. Mckinsey & Company selected young female academics (under 38 years old) from worldwide with strong problem-solving […]

The young investigators will benefit from the ELIDEK (HFRI) financial support to establish novel and multi-disciplinary neuroscience research at our host institute, IMBB-FORTH. Read more at the Hellenic Ministry of Education announcement.

Dr. Polleux, Prof. of Neuroscience at Columbia University, recommended our publication: Frank, et al., (2018). Hotspots of dendritic spine turnover facilitate clustered spine addition and learning and memory. Nature communications. on F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field. Dr. Polleux’s recommendation comment: “In their study, Frank and collaborators used state-of-the art imaging techniques to relate the structural phenomenon of spine turnover […]

The laboratory of Dr. Alcino Silva at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) joined forces with the lab of Dr. Poirazi at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of FORTH in order to explain why the “banding together” of synapses in dendrites relates to better learning and memory. The work is published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, and […]

Check out our new paper on pattern separation that was just published in Hippocampus. The paper describes the role of dentate granule cell dendrites in pattern separation by using a simple, yet biologically relevant, computational network model. Congratulations to all authors and especially to Spiros Chavlis! Here is the online publication.

Nature journal just published an opinion article authored by Dr. Poirazi on the hassles of financial support in academia and the pursuit of ideal grant schemes. Special thanks to Dr. Tim Vogels, University of Oxford, Dr. Matthew Grubb, King College London, and Dr. Carlos Ribeiro, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, who jointly helped with the co-ordination of the reported survey.

Research at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in collaboration with Columbia University published in the scientific journal Neuron reveals the role of mossy cells in environment discrimination in awake, behaving animals. Researchers combined experimental with computational methods in order to study the function of these excitatory cells. Hippocampus is a key brain area involved in memory formation, […]

George Kastellaki’s research has been published in Cell Reports under the title: “Linking Memories across Time via Neuronal and Dendritic Overlaps in Model Neurons with Active Dendrites”. Here are the online publication and the IMBB-FORTH press release:   “Research at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology published today in the scientific journal Cell Reports reveals the dendritic mechanisms that underlie […]

We are proud to announce the participation of our PhD student Spiros Chavlis to the CAJAL winter school: “The Brain Prize Course. The Hippocampus: from Circuits to Cognition”, in Bordeaux Neurocampus, France, 10-31 October. Spiros was selected among 20 highly competitive participants and was also awarded with a generous financial support from The Hippocampus journal.