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How do animals perceive three-dimensional space, and how do they navigate within it? How does the brain translate sensory stimuli into specific behavior? Starting in October, Dr. Fabian Voigt will investigate these questions with a new research group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin. To visualize these connections in freely moving animals, the neuroscientist has received an ERC Starting Grant to develop a new generation of optical microscopes.
Weighing an average of 1.5 kilograms and containing over 23 billion nerve cells, the human brain is an extraordinarily complex organ. As the central nervous system’s most vital component, it governs essential bodily functions and processes such as sensory processing and motor control. Yet, exactly how the brain translates sensory input into a response – and triggers a specific behavior – remains an open question. Optical microscopes can capture brain activity in smaller model organisms, but these animals typically cannot move freely while under observation. This limits the insights we can gain into information processing in a natural environment. Dr. Fabian Voigt, a neuroscientist and microscope developer, now aims to overcome this limitation with a new research project.
Observing Brain Development in Real Time
Dr. Fabian Voigt studies how neural circuits elicit specific behaviors in living organisms. He is particularly interested in the connection to spatial orientation. To observe neural processes under natural conditions, Voigt aims to develop a new generation of optical microscopes. For his project “KALEIDOSCOPE – Metasurface-based brain observatories,” Voigt has been awarded a 2.5 million Euro Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). In addition, he receives matching funding from the “Max Planck Transatlantic Program” of the Max Planck Society. The “Max Planck Transatlantic Program” aims to enable outstanding researchers based in the United States to pursue scientific careers in Germany.
Starting in October 2026, Voigt will establish his new research group, called Neurophotonics, at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) and the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM). The interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers pursues two main goals. The first is to develop new imaging instruments capable of visualizing and studying the brain’s complexity as a whole. The second is to address open questions in neurobiology: How do animals perceive three-dimensional space and orient themselves within their environment? Which species are capable of creating cognitive maps? How does spatial cognition emerge, and how does it evolve over the course of development?
KALEIDOSCOPE – New Imaging Techniques for the Neurosciences and Beyond
In the ERC-funded KALEIDOSCOPE project, Voigt combines both of his research goals: His team aims to develop a new generation of optical microscopes capable of recording brain activity in freely moving animals. The project will combine state-of-the-art image processing, microscopy, and optical nanostructures to develop a microscope capable of tracking an animal’s movements in three dimensions with exceptional speed and precision while simultaneously mapping the activity of individual neurons.
A New Research Home at the Interface of Physics and Medicine: MPZPM
“For me, the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin is the ideal place to pursue my main interest – bringing together the worlds of photonics and neuroscience,” says Voigt. “The funding from the ERC Grant not only supports the establishment of my research group. Our new instruments will be freely accessible to the scientific community as an ‘open hardware’ project and will be applied to a wide range of questions, not only in neuroscience.” At MPZPM, Voigt joins two other research teams dedicated to the neurosciences. Prof. Kristian Franze, head of the “Neuronal Mechanics” division, and his research group investigate how cellular forces, local mechanical properties of cells and tissues, and cellular mechanosensitivity contribute to the development of the central nervous system (CNS). Prof. Tomohisa Toda is investigating how age-related impairments of neurons can lead to neurological and psychiatric disorders. His “Neural Epigenomics” research group aims to unravel the fundamental mechanisms of brain function during the aging process.
MPZPM is a collaborative research center of MPL, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen. While the laboratories’ affiliation with MPL provides proximity to photonics and optical technologies, Voigt finds ideal conditions for his model organisms at MPZPM through the “In Vivo Model Systems” core facility. This facility already houses state-of-the-art fish breeding systems for zebrafish larvae Danio rerio and the fish Danionella cerebrum – one of the smallest known vertebrates, measuring just one centimeter in length – which will be moving into MPZPM alongside Voigt.
Dr. Fabian Voigt
Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin, Erlangen
Research Group Leader “Neurophotonics”
www.mpl.mpg.de / fabian.voigt@mpzpm.mpg.de
Dr. Fabian Voigt
Copyright: Philipp Bethge
Custom light-sheet microscope for imaging neuronal activity in the brain of larval zebrafish
Copyright: Eberhard Zangger
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Dr. Fabian Voigt
Copyright: Philipp Bethge
Custom light-sheet microscope for imaging neuronal activity in the brain of larval zebrafish
Copyright: Eberhard Zangger
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