Joseph R. Fetcho
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior
Cornell University
Over the last 30 years, first at SUNY Stony Brook and then at Cornell University, Joe Fetcho pioneered the use of zebrafish to tie neuronal circuits to vertebrate behavior. His lab did the first imaging of neuronal activity with cellular resolution in an intact vertebrate, made the first transgenic vertebrates with a genetically encoded indicator of calcium to monitor neuronal activity, and pioneered the ability to tie neurons to behavior by laser removal anywhere in the brain. He used these technical innovations to, for example, discover beautiful, orderly ties between development and function in the nervous system, showing that neurons that control movement in the brain and spinal cord are produced and wired by cell type in age ordered patterns that match their patterns of recruitment during behavior. His work has been recognized by a Javits Award from NIH, an NIH Directors Pioneer Award, a McKnight Technological Achievement in Neuroscience Award, election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, as well as prestigious invited lectures such as the Victor Hamburger Lecture at Washington University and the Forbes lectureship at the Marine Biological Laboratory. His work helped to catalyze growing world-wide use of the zebrafish model to study how the brain produces behavior because the model and some of the tools he initially developed, along with new ones developed by him and others, allow literally watching the structure and function of individual neurons throughout the vertebrate brain during behavior, from embryo to adult.
Genes and photons: new avenues into the neuronal basis of behavior.
Current opinion in neurobiology Dec, 2004 | Pubmed ID: 15582372
The utility of zebrafish for studies of the comparative biology of motor systems.
Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution Sep, 2007 | Pubmed ID: 17024661
A topographic map of recruitment in spinal cord.
Nature Mar, 2007 | Pubmed ID: 17330042
Zebrafish and motor control over the last decade.
Brain research reviews Jan, 2008 | Pubmed ID: 17825423
Using imaging and genetics in zebrafish to study developing spinal circuits in vivo.
Developmental neurobiology May, 2008 | Pubmed ID: 18383546
Synaptic homeostasis in a zebrafish glial glycine transporter mutant.
Journal of neurophysiology Oct, 2008 | Pubmed ID: 18715895
Continuous shifts in the active set of spinal interneurons during changes in locomotor speed.
Nature neuroscience Dec, 2008 | Pubmed ID: 18997790
Shared versus specialized glycinergic spinal interneurons in axial motor circuits of larval zebrafish.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience Nov, 2008 | Pubmed ID: 19036991
Spinal interneurons differentiate sequentially from those driving the fastest swimming movements in larval zebrafish to those driving the slowest ones.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience Oct, 2009 | Pubmed ID: 19864569
Some principles of organization of spinal neurons underlying locomotion in zebrafish and their implications.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Jun, 2010 | Pubmed ID: 20536924
Movement, technology and discovery in the zebrafish.
Current opinion in neurobiology Feb, 2011 | Pubmed ID: 20970321
In vivo imaging of myelin in the vertebrate central nervous system using third harmonic generation microscopy.
Biophysical journal Mar, 2011 | Pubmed ID: 21354410
Chronic in vivo imaging in the mouse spinal cord using an implanted chamber.
Nature methods Mar, 2012 | Pubmed ID: 22266542
Homeostatic regulation of dendritic dynamics in a motor map in vivo.
Nature communications , 2013 | Pubmed ID: 23803587
TRP channel mediated neuronal activation and ablation in freely behaving zebrafish.
Nature methods Feb, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 26657556
A circuit motif in the zebrafish hindbrain for a two alternative behavioral choice to turn left or right.
eLife 08, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 27502742
In Vivo Measurement of Glycine Receptor Turnover and Synaptic Size Reveals Differences between Functional Classes of Motoneurons in Zebrafish.
Current biology : CB Apr, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28416115
Key Features of Structural and Functional Organization of Zebrafish Facial Motor Neurons Are Resilient to Disruption of Neuronal Migration.
Current biology : CB Jun, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28602649
Features of the structure, development, and activity of the zebrafish noradrenergic system explored in new CRISPR transgenic lines.
The Journal of comparative neurology 10, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30070695
Deep three-photon imaging of the brain in intact adult zebrafish.
Nature methods 06, 2020 | Pubmed ID: 32341543
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