André Fiala is a Professor and Head of the Department of Molecular Neurobiology of Behavior at the Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Germany. He received his Diploma in Biology and doctoral degree from the Free University Berlin.
During Dr. Fiala's training he developed a keen focus on research that links animal behavior with brain function at the level of neural circuits and at the molecular level. In particular, the neuronal mechanisms underlying learning and memory are in the center of his research. As a post-doctoral researcher (2001 to 2008) in Erich Buchner's lab at the Department of Neurobiology and Genetics, University of Würzburg, Germany, he established optical calcium imaging in the Drosophila brain using genetically encoded calcium sensors and he established the use of the optogenetic actuator Channelrhodopsin-2 in Drosophila as well. In 2008 he was recruited as Professor at the University of Göttingen. From 2014 until 2018 he was the Managing Director of the Johann-Friedrich Blumenbach-Institute for Zoology and Anthropology.
In his laboratory the fruit fly Drosophila is used as a model system to analyze how neurons, neuronal circuits and plastic synaptic connections between neurons organize and control adaptive behavior.
