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Professor Bruno van Swinderen

Professorial Research Fellow - GL

Queensland Brain Institute
b.vanswinderen@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 66332

Overview

Associate Professor Bruno van Swinderen received his PhD in Evolutionary and Population Biology in 1998 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. His graduate work was on general anesthesia in a Caenorhabditis elegans model, applying both quantitative genetics and molecular genetic approaches. For his postdoc at The Neurosciences Institute (NSI) in San Diego, California (1999-2003), he switched to Drosophila melanogaster to develop methods of studying perception in the fruit-fly model. He ran a lab at NSI from 2003 to late 2007.

In February 2008, Associate Professor van Swinderen established a new laboratory at the Queensland Brain Institute.

Bruno van Swinderen's group use Drosophila as a genetic model system to study mechanisms of perception in the brain abd are interested in three phenomena: selective attention, sleep, and general anesthesia. Their focus is on visual perception and how it is affected by these different arousal states. Most of our current effort is in understanding visual selective attention in the fly brain and how attention processes interact with memory formation. Toward this goal, they use various novel visual paradigms in a Drosophila molecular genetics context.

Research Interests

  • Attention and memory
    Behavioral choices result from an ongoing interplay between attention and memory. We have developed paradigms to study visual attention and memory in Drosophila, thereby allowing us to investigate this complex problem in a powerful genetic model. Two levels of investigation are involved: behavior and brain electrophysiology. Behavioral screening methods allow us to determine visual responsiveness levels resulting from gene mutations or drug treatments, and electrophysiology in individual flies identifies brain processes affected by our manipulations. Our goal is to identify mechanisms of visual attention, and to elucidate how these processes interact with memory systems.
  • Anesthesia and sleep
    We all sleep, and many of us require anesthesia during surgery at some point in our lives. However, the function of sleep is unclear, and the mechanism of general anesthesia remains mysterious. Our insight into brain processes modulating visual perception in Drosophila is applied at an electrophysiological level towards understanding sleep and general anesthesia, when perception is lost. We approach this problem by targeting candidate molecular systems at the level of molecular lesions and pharmacology.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Wash. (St Louis)

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

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Publications

Book Chapter

  • Sleep in Drosophila

    Kirszenblat, Leonie and van Swinderen, Bruno (2019). Sleep in Drosophila. Handbook of Sleep Research. (pp. 333-347) edited by Hans C. Dringenberg. London, United Kingdom: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-813743-7.00022-0

  • Using Drosophila to understand general anesthesia: from synapses to behavior

    Karunanithi, Shanker, Troup, Michael and van Swinderen, Bruno (2018). Using Drosophila to understand general anesthesia: from synapses to behavior. Chemical and biochemical approaches for the study of anesthetic function, Part A. (pp. 153-176) edited by Roderick G. Eckenhoff and Ivan J. Dmochowski. Cambridge, MA, United States: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/bs.mie.2018.02.003

  • Visual learning and perception in Drosophila

    van Swinderen, B. (2010). Visual learning and perception in Drosophila. Drosophila neurobiology: A laboratory manual. (pp. 411-427) edited by Bing Zhang, Marc R. Freeman and Scott Waddell. New York , U.S.A: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

  • Sleep in Invertebrates

    van Swinderen, B. (2006). Sleep in Invertebrates. Evolution of Nervous Systems, Volume 1: Theories, Development, Invertebrates. (pp. 451-456) edited by Jon H. Kaas. Oxford: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B0-12-370878-8/00185-3

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Edited Outputs

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Homeostatic regulation of prediction in the fly brain

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • A target mechanism for general anaesthesia in the presynaptic release machinery

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Presynaptic control of general anaesthesia

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Consciousness and Unconsciousness in Brain Organoids

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Investigating the functional role of the active zone protein unc-13 in the regulation of synaptic transmission

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Behaviour genetics, Genetics - behavious, Selective attention and memory, Attention - selective, Memory - selective, Anaesthesia, Sleep, Model organisms, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, Evolution

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ORCID: 0000-0001-6552-7418

Scopus ID: 6602426045

Personal Profile: Link

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