Welcome to Bijayalaxmi Swain, who is new research assistant in Anne von Philipsborn's group

Bijayalaxmi Swain is working on characterizing the function of interneurons involved in male song by a behavioural experiments (song recording) combined with genetic manipulation of defined neuronal classes by neuronal silencing, optogenetic activation, RNAi mediated knockdown of neurotransmission genes or feminisation by expression of genes of the sex determination pathway. Furthermore, she aims to establish an anatomical atlas of interneurons and integrate it into the previously published atlas of motor neurons assembled in the lab. For this, neurons will be imaged by confocal microscopy and 3D reconstructed after non-rigid image registration. Drosophila reproductive behaviour is an important model system for diverse fields, spanning from circuit neuroscience to behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology.