In an exciting development for 2024, our colleague Dr. Birte Seffert embarks on a nationwide tour to meet with the Klaus Tschira Boost Fund Fellows across Germany. The Keeping Up with the Boost Fellows series aims to shine a spotlight on the journeys, challenges, and achievements of our Fellows. 

If any of you wondered (and we get this question sometimes), if the Klaus Tschira Boost Fund excludes funding several fellows from the same city or institution, this Boost trip story is your answer. Göttingen hosts KT Boost fellows Frederic Römschied, Ignacio Rodriguez Polo, and Vahid Nasirimarekani. All three work in close vicinity to each other on the northern hills of Göttingen. Such a happy occasion called for a celebration, and so all three met with Birte Seffert for dinner under the open sky in the old town before Birte visited them individually to talk about research, career, and life.

Today, we introduce Frederic Römschied, a group leader at the European Neuroscience Institute. Frederic’s journey to becoming a scientist began after watching a documentary on brain researcher Gereon Fink. Initially interested in studying medicine, Frederic’s path led him to physics instead, eventually venturing into neurophysics and neuroscience with research stays in Italy, Portugal, and the US.

Frederic’s Boost Fund project

Frederic’s research focuses on the computational neuroethology of social flexibility – his “niche”. He describes it as his unique brand in science, where he is gaining expert status and setting new standards. The Boost Fund allows him to further define and develop this field. His project uses the fly Drosophila  to study how brains drive learning from social experience. Made possible by the Boost Fund, Frederic developed a cutting-edge experimental setup that is taking his research to the next level.

This setup, nicknamed “BergFlyN” (after Berlin’s iconic Berghain club), features infrared sensors and tiny microphones to capture the social interaction of two flies, and two lasers to perturb this interaction in real-time, using a technique called ‘closed-loop optogenetics’. Independently manipulating ineracting flies in real time is something that hasn´t been done before. This is achieved using an AI system to trace the flies’ movements and to target the lasers on the flies. This opens up unprecedented possibilities for studying how brains control learning from social experience.

The importance of Frederic’s work lies in its potential to identify genes and neural circuit malfunctions linked to social and psychological disorders, providing potential breakthroughs in treating these conditions.

Key insight

Mentorship was pivotal in Frederic’s career, offering guidance and support that helped him overcome challenges and make key decisions, leading him to where he is today.

The KT Boost Fund is a joint program of GSO and the Klaus Tschira Foundation for postdoctoral researchers in the Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computer Science. It offers flexible funding for risky and interdisciplinary research on the way to academic independence. Funding can be used to hire staff, buy equipment, or build collaborations – tailored to the research project.