Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Dr. Thomas Frank

Group Leader at ENI / MBExC


  • Since 2024: Group Leader (associated), Campus Institute for Dynamics of Biological Networks (CIDBN), Göttingen, Germany
  • Since 2023: Group Leader, Olfactory Memory and Behavior (Zebrafish Neurobiology) group, Faculty of Biology and Psychology and ENI, University of Göttingen, Germany
  • 2019–2022: Group Leader, Olfactory Memory group, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (formerly Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology), Martinsried, Germany
  • 2011–2019: Postdoctoral fellow, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), Basel, Switzerland
  • 2010–2011: Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Otolaryngology (UMG), Göttingen, Germany
  • 2010: PhD in Neurosciences, University of Göttingen, Germany
  • 2007–2010: PhD student, IMPRS Neurosciences / Department of Otolaryngology (UMG), Göttingen, Germany
  • 2002–2007: Universities of Giessen, Magdeburg, Göttingen, Germany, Studies of Biology and Neurosciences



Major Research Interests

Our sense of smell is remarkable. For example, just a whiff of a familiar scent can trigger vivid recollections - whether they be joyous memories of our childhood or difficult memories of traumatic experiences. But smells also influence our behavior more directly. The scent of delicious food can literally turn our heads (as long as we are hungry) while the smell of spoiled food makes us instinctively recoil. Our research tries to understand how the nervous system processes smells and how that leads to specific behaviors. To do this, we are investigating the brains of small, transparent zebrafish, in which we study neuronal information processing at multiple scales, from synapses to whole brain networks. We study how information is transformed across different parts of the brain, such as areas that handle sensory information, form associations, and control movement. We use a combination of imaging, optogenetics, electrophysiology, genetics, behavioral approaches, and computational methods to observe, manipulate, and make sense of the activity of brain cells as the fish react to different smells in their environment. Our ultimate goal is to understand how past experience, internal states, and environmental context change the way the different parts of the brain work together to process sensory information and influence behavior.

Homepage Department/Research Group
https://eni-g.de/groups/neurobiology-zebrafish
Link to Google Scholar Account: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=96dQDwIAAAAJ&hl=en

Selected Recent Publications


  • Meissner-Bernard, C., Jenkins, B., Rupprecht, P., Bouldoires, E.A., Zenke, F., Friedrich, R.W., and Frank, T. (2024). Computational functions of precisely balanced neuronal assemblies in an olfactory memory network. Preprint at bioRxiv

  • Edelman, B.J., Siegenthaler, D., Wanken, P., Jenkins, B., Schmid, B., Ressle, A., Gogolla, N., Frank, T., and Macé, E. (2024). The COMBO window: A chronic cranial implant for multiscale circuit interrogation in mice. PLOS Biol 22, e3002664. 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002664.

  • Sarkar, T., Lieberth, K., Pavlou, A., Frank, T., Mailaender, V., McCulloch, I., Blom, P.W.M., Torricelli, F., and Gkoupidenis, P. (2022). An organic artificial spiking neuron for in situ neuromorphic sensing and biointerfacing. Nat Electron 5, 774–783. 10.1038/s41928-022-00859-y.

  • Huang, K.-H., Rupprecht, P., Frank, T., Kawakami, K., Bouwmeester, T., and Friedrich, R.W. (2020). A virtual reality system to analyze neural activity and behavior in adult zebrafish. Nat Methods 17, 343–351. 10.1038/s41592-020-0759-2

  • Frank, T., Mönig, N.R., Satou, C., Higashijima, S., and Friedrich, R.W. (2019). Associative conditioning remaps odor representations and modifies inhibition in a higher olfactory brain area. Nat Neurosci 22, 1844–1856. 10.1038/s41593-019-0495-z