Short CV
From 1975 Arthur Konnerth studied medicine at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) of Munich. He was a graduate student at the Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) for Psychiatry in Munich from 1979 to 1982. In 1983 he was awarded his Ph.D. degree at LMU. The next three years Konnerth had a Postdoc position at the MPI for Psychiatry and at University of Pennsylvania (Feodor-Lynen-Scholarship, Humboldt-Foundation). In 1986 he became a Research Assistant and Group leader at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry (department of Membrane Biophysics) in Göttingen. From 1993 to 1999 he was a Professor for Physiology at Saarland University. Konnerth came to Technische Universität München in 1999 as a Professor and Director of the Physiological Institute. From 2000 to 2004 he was Professor for Physiology and head of the chair for Cellular Physiology at LMU. In 2004 Konnerth returned to TUM. Today he is Professor for Neuroscience and Director of the Institute of Neuroscience at TUM. In addition, he is project leader of the Excellence Cluster CIPS a collaboration between the LMU and TUM. He has also held visiting appointments at several institutions, including University of Zurich, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Selected Awards
- 2006, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Medal
- 2004, Member of Academia Europaea
- 2004, Friedrich-Schiedel-Stiftungslehrstuhl for Neuroscience, TUM
- 2003, Honorary doctoral degree, Medical University of Timisoara, Romania
- 2002, Member German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 2001 Leibniz Prize, German Research Foundation
- 2001, Max-Planck-Award
- 1999, Adolf-Fick-Award, Physical-Medical Society
- 1997, Feldberg-Award
- 1991, Human Science Frontiers Program
- 1986, Michael-Award for epilepsy research
Research Interests
Konnerth’s research focuses on mechanisms that determine activity-dependent modifications of the function and structure of neurons. These modifications, including long-term potentiation and long-term depression, occur during the development of the nervous system, but represent also an ongoing feature of neurons in adults. He studies different types of neurons in the cortex, cerebellum and hippocampus, and uses a variety of techniques, including patch-clamp recordings from neurons in brain slices and high-resolution imaging. Another major focus of his laboratory is the investigation of the mechanisms of synaptic wiring in the immature cortex and hippocampus. After observing the activity-dependent conversion of silent glutamatergic synapses into conducting ones in the developing hippocampus, he started to investigate synaptic signaling and plasticity in immature neuronal networks.
Selected Publications
- Garaschuk, Olga; Milos, Ruxandra-Iulia; Konnerth, Arthur: Targeted bulk-loading of fluorescent indicators for two-photon brain imaging in vivo. Nat Protoc 1 (1), 2006, 380-386.
- Adelsberger, Helmuth; Garaschuk, Olga; Konnerth, Arthur: Cortical calcium waves in resting newborn mice. Nature Neuroscience 8 (8), 2005, 988-990.
- Kovalchuk, Yury; Holthoff, Knut; Konnerth, Arthur: Neurotrophin action on a rapid timescale. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 14 (5), 2004, 558-563.
- Rose, Christine R.; Blum, Robert; Pichler, Bruno; Lepier, Alexandra; Kafitz, Karl W.; Konnerth, Arthur: Truncated TrkB-T1 mediates neurotrophin-evoked calcium signalling in glia cells. Nature 426 (6962), 2003, 74-78.
- Stosiek, C.; Garaschuk, O.; Holthoff, K.; Konnerth, A.: In vivo two-photon calcium imaging of neuronal networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 (12), 2003, 7319-7324.
- Blum, Robert; Kafitz, Karl W.; Konnerth, Arthur: Neurotrophin-evoked depolarization requires the sodium channel NaV1.9. Nature 419 (6908), 2002, 687-693.
- Kovalchuk, Y.: Postsynaptic Induction of BDNF-Mediated Long-Term Potentiation. Science 295 (5560), 2002, 1729-1734.
Publications as TUM-IAS-Fellow
