Tel Aviv University and Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) are expanding their scientific collaboration in brain research, with plans to establish a joint hub for electrophysiology and neuroimaging and develop new training opportunities for early-career researchers.
The collaboration between the Sieratzki Institute for Advances in Neuroscience (SIAN) at Tel Aviv University and the LIN in Magdeburg will bring together researchers working across multiple areas of neuroscience, including electrophysiology, neuroimaging, genetic techniques, neural networks and computer modeling.
The expanded partnership will initially focus on joint workshops in electrophysiology, with the first methodology workshops expected to begin later this year. A summer school in Magdeburg is planned for 2027, followed by another in Tel Aviv in 2028.
The institutions have already been collaborating for several years. Prof. Inna Slutsky, who heads SIAN, has served on the LIN’s Scientific Advisory Board since 2023.
“Our collaboration has grown over the years out of personal contacts. With the workshops and the Summer School, we are opening it up to the next generation,” said Prof. Stefan Remy, scientific director of the LIN.
Research across scales
A central goal of the collaboration is to enable researchers to study the brain across different spatial and temporal scales, from individual cells and molecules to neural circuits and behavior.
Researchers at the LIN will contribute expertise in electrophysiology and neuroimaging, while researchers at Tel Aviv University will contribute expertise in neuroplasticity, neural networks and modern genetic methods, including chemo- and optogenetics.
The partners also plan to develop computer models that can connect findings from different levels of brain research. Such models could be used to integrate experimental results, develop new hypotheses and guide future research.
The collaboration will also include research visits to Germany and joint research projects, particularly in the fields of learning and memory. The institutions expect the partnership to lead to scientific publications and joint applications for external research funding.
Prof. Rina Rosin-Arbesfeld, vice dean of the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Tel Aviv University, is supporting the development of the new Neurophysiology Hub.
“A Leibniz Institute offers something that a single university laboratory rarely can: technology platforms and long-term programs that are not tied to a single project,” Slutsky said. “For our students and faculty members, this opens up access to methods and a continuity that we cannot easily establish on our own.”
Building a neurophysiology hub
As part of the initiative, Tel Aviv University is recruiting Dr. Samuel Frere, a specialist in neurophysiology and neural circuits, to lead the program.
The partners aim to combine their existing expertise to create an internationally recognized hub for electrophysiology and neuroimaging, serving as a platform for methodological training, scientific exchange and joint research.
Slutsky said she hopes the infrastructure being developed at SIAN could eventually become the basis for a national neurophysiology hub in Israel.
The expanded collaboration was formally launched at a symposium held at the LIN in Magdeburg on August 25. Researchers from both institutions presented their current work, covering topics including learning and memory, emotional states and changes in neural connections.
The symposium brought together Slutsky, Dr. Amit Vinograd and Dr. Arseny Finkelstein from Tel Aviv University and Dr. Alessio Attardo from the LIN. Their presentations highlighted areas of research that the two institutions plan to pursue together as the partnership develops.
Written in collaboration with Tel Aviv University