Updates of advances in the study of behavioral neurogenetics in the drosophila larva
Maggot Meeting 2025
Institute of Biology and research group Thum cordially invite you to the international Drosophila-Maggot Meeting:
Maggot Meeting 2025
15th - 18th September 2025
Institute of Biology, Big Lecture Hall, Talstrasse 33, 04103 Leipzig
Programme:
Monday 15.9.2025
17:00 Opening reception
17:30 Opening remarks
17:40 “Relative value learning in Drosophila larvae”
Michael Schleyer, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN), Department Genetics of Learning and Memory, Magdeburg, Germany & Hokkaido University, Institute for the Advancement of Higher Education, Sapporo, Japan.
18:00 “Multimodal social context modulates larval behavior in Drosophila”
Akhila Mudunuri, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Germany & Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Germany & Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany.
18:20 “Glial Lipid Droplets Boost Brain Development”
Anna Ziegler, Institute for Neuro- and Behavioral Biology, University of Münster, Germany.
18:40 “Larval local search behavior”
Jessica Kromp, Institute of Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University Leipzig, Germany.
19:00 Casual gathering with beer and pizza
Tuesday 16.9.2025
09:15 Meet at the Lecture Hall
09:30 “Graviception drives puparium spatial orientation via mechanosensation”
Nuria Romero, Université Côte d’Azur, INRAE, CNRS, INSERM, Sophia Agrobiotech Institute (ISA), Sophia Antipolis, France.
09:50 “Embodied neuroscience with Drosophila larva”
Francois Laurent, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Hub, Paris, France.
10:10 “Functional heterogeneity in dopaminergic neurons”
Claire Eschbach, Institut NeuroPSI, CNRS Université Paris-Saclay, Saclay, France.
10:30 “Tba”
Tba
Break
11:30 “Cross-species comparative connectomics reveals functional evolution of central neural circuits”
Christoph Giez, The Francis Crick Research Institute, London, UK.
11:50 “The role of the NG2 ortholog Kon-tiki in axon wrapping glia”
Suchet Nanda, Institute for Neuro- and Behavioral Biology, University of Münster, Germany.
12:10 “Switching on the larval motor: an RNA perspective”
Claudio Alonso, Sussex Neuroscience, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
12:30 “Mapping a complete sensorimotor circuit underlying Hunching”
Amit Hasan, Institut NeuroPSI, CNRS Université Paris-Saclay, Saclay, France.
12:50 Lunch break
14:00 “Neuromodulatory action governing larval somatosensory function and behavior”
Peter Soba, Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
14:20 “A mechanical mechanism of Drosophila larval rolling without external torque”
Zhefeng Gong, Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou & Department of Neurology of the fourth Hospital and School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine & Liangzhu Laboratory, MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, State Key Laboratory of Brain-machine Intelligence & NHC and CAMS Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
14:40 “Split Decisions: Adhesion GPCR–Dependent Mechanosensing in Brain Development”
Nicole Scholz, Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry, University Leipzig, Germany.
15:00 “Motor Pattern Generation via Segmentally Interconnected Excitatory and Inhibitory Circuits in Larval Locomotion”
Akinao Nose, Department of Complexity Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Chiba & Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Break
16:00 “How the larva navigates up and down gradients towards its thermotactic setpoint”
Aravi Samuel, Department of Physics and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
16:20 “Tba”
Jordan Watts, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK.
16:40 “Multiple mechanisms of action for an extremely painful venom”
Dan Tracey, The Linda and Jack Gill Center for Biomolecular Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
17:00 Poster Session
Wednesday 17.9.2025
09:15 Meet at the Lecture Hall
09:30 “Starvation modulates the ‘cognitive landscape’ of adult and larval Drosophila”
Edanur Sen, Department of Genetics, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
09:50 “Molecular basis of structural and functional plasticity in developing neurons”
Kazuo Emoto, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science & International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
10:10 “Hunger versus Hazard: Neurophysiological mechanisms of maladaptive food intake”
Dennis Pauls, Institute of Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University Leipzig, Germany.
10:30 “Tonically active segmental interneurons maintain a resting motor state in Drosophila larvae”
Maarten Zwart, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Centre for Biophotonics, University of St Andrews, UK.
Break
11:30 “Tba”
Katrin Vogt, Department of Biology & Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Germany.
11:50 “Neural mechanisms that modulate pupation sites in a desiccation experience-dependent manner”
Tadao Usui, Graduate School of Biostudies & Center for Living Systems Information Science (CeLiSIS), Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan.
12:10 “Coordination between dendrite pruning and regrowth in the PNS”
Sebastian Rumpf, Institute for Neuro- and Behavioral Biology, University of Münster, Germany.
12:30 “From synapses to social behaviour”
Michael Winding, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.
12:50 Lunch break
14:00 Poster Session
– Zoom Talks --
Link:
uni-leipzig.zoom-x.de/j/67209345777
Meeting-ID: 672 0934 5777
Kenncode: 601823
--
17:30 “Tba”
Ellie Heckscher, Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
17:50 “Tba”
Matthew Kayser, Chronobiology Sleep Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
18:10 “Parallel learning motifs in the larval mushroom body: Computational characteristics and advantages”
Anna-Maria Jürgensen, Computational Systems Neuroscience, University of Cologne, Germany.
18:30 “Tba”
Barry Condron, Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
18:50 “Comprehensive Whole-Brain Mapping of Functional, Structural, and Developmental Modules Underlying Neural Networks of the Drosophila Larval Brain”
Volker Hartenstein, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Thursday 18.9.2025
09:15 Meet at the Lecture Hall
09:30 “Meniscus-Climbing Drosophilidae Larvae”
Teruyuki Matsunaga, Department of Complexity Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Chiba, Japan
09:50 “Polyadic synapses enable multiplexed information flow in the larval brain”
Natalie Ness, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.
10:10 “Ethanol guided behavior in Drosophila larvae”
Nadine Nowag, Institute of Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University Leipzig, Germany.
10:30 “Remoulade at the Synapse: A Key to Female-Specific Nocifensive Behavior”
Beatriz Blanco-Redondo, Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry, University Leipzig, Germany.
10:50 “Tba”
Tba
11:10 Closing remarks
Posters:
Ian Peasley (Tracey lab)
Jing Ning (Oyama lab)
Yuma TSUKASA (Usui lab)
Takumi OHBAYASHI (Usui lab)
Hiroshi Kohsaka (Nose lab)
Doïna Casado (Romero lab)
Andre Ferreira Castro
Nil Demir (Langenhan lab)
William Hamlet (Langenhan lab)
Samantha Aurich (Pauls lab)
Sharbatanu Chatterjee (Jovanic lab)
Abhijit Parameswaran (Jovanic lab)
Qianhui Zhao (Gong lab)
Talha Alkhateeb (Behr lab)
Paul Goldine (Langenhan lab)
Andre Ferreira Castro
Lucy Kimbley (Winding lab)
Lena Cochrane (Winding lab)
Anna Seggewisse (Winding lab)
Milo Mee (Winding lab)
Nazli Kaptanoglu (Winding lab)
Milagros Pallavicini (Winding lab)
Alice Ren (Winding lab)
Zofia Ziolkowska (Prieto Godino lab)
Marit Prätz (Klämbt lab)
Emily Leonhard (Klämbt lab)
Arian Seyed Sadri (Klämbt lab)