Joachim W. Deitmer

Biography

1976 Dr. rer. nat., University of Konstanz 1976-1978 Postdoctoral fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at the Medical School, University of Bristol, U.K. 1978-1985 Faculty of Biology, Ruhr-University, Bochum 1981 Habilitation, Ruhr-University Bochum 1982-1983 Max-Kade Fellow at the Department Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. 1985-1989 Heisenberg-Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, University of Düsseldorf Since 1989 Professor of Zoology/Neurobiology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern, Head of the General Zoology Group 1995-1997/ 2008-2009 Dean of the Department of Biology Since 2006 Liaison officer of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft since 2015 Senior Research Professor of Zoology/Neurobiology

Research Interest

Nervous systems are made of two major cell types, neurons and glial cells. In the human brain, glial cells outnumber neurons by a factor of ten, nevertheless, little is still known about glial cells. We are interested in the properties and functions of glial cells and their contribution to the information processing in the brain. In particular, we study glia-neuron communication in rodent cerebellum, in isolated leech ganglia and during metamorphosis of the sphinx moth, using patch-clamp, conventional electrophysiological methods, confocal and two-photon laser scanning microscopy and calcium imaging. In addition, we are interested in glial membrane transport involved in shuttling metabolites between glial cells and neurons, and express glial transport proteins in frog oocytes to study their cooperation.