Laboratory of Neural Connectivity

The brain’s connectivity determines our ability to perceive the world around us. This connectivity is largely defined by synapses: the sites where neurons transmit signals to one other and which provide the basic means for neuronal communication.

Synaptic connections are established throughout development. Already in the embryo, neurons begin to specialize and generate connections according to cell type-specific programs. This process intensifies during early life, after which neurons lose the capacity for further wiring, and brain’s connectivity becomes largely established.

The question remains, can the capacity for wiring or rewiring—for example, following injury or during normal adult plasticity—be restored or enhanced? Are there specific molecular programs that could trigger synapse-specific rewiring in the adult brain?

Our research focuses on these outstanding questions.

Csaba Földy is an Assistant Professor and a Co-Director of the Brain Research Institute. He studied physics in Budapest, Hungary, and then received his Ph.D. in Neurosciences at UC Irvine, USA. As a postdoctoral fellow, he joined the laboratories of Profs. Thomas C. Südhof and Robert C. Malenka at Stanford University, USA, where he started to work on cell-adhesion molecule signaling and developed combined approaches for electrophysiological and molecular profiling of single neurons. In 2014, he received an ERC Starting Grant (later replaced by and SNF - ERC Transfer Grant).