caesar
Short profile of the Forschungszentrum caesar
caesar
Caesar is a Neuroscience research institute associated with the Max Planck Society. Research at caesar is concerned with understanding cellular signal processing and neural mechanisms underlying behavior. This ranges from studying the behaving single celled organism to studying one of the core questions of mammalian neurobiology: how do patterns of neuronal activity give rise to complex but coherent and goal-directed behavior? To unravel submolecular structures as well as to understand the neural underpinnings of sensory based behavior, the scientists use a broad set of techniques ranging from cryo-TEM, holographic microscopy, and optogenetics to development of miniaturized multiphoton microscopes and computational approaches for measuring and modelling activity in the freely behaving mammal. In collaboration with the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI), the University of Bonn and Florida Atlantic University, caesar established an International Max Planck Research School Graduate Program (IMPRS) based on Brain and Behavior. This first transatlantic IMPRS aims to train students in a large range of cutting-edge techniques which are currently instrumental in the quest for understanding brain circuit function in the whole animal and its role in defining behavior.