Menno Witter becomes new member of KI-CBM

Professor Menno Witter began at the Centre for the Biology of Memory in September 2007 as a professor of neuroanatomy, although he was officially hired in the beginning of January. Professor Witter is quite pleased with his new position in Trondheim.

“The centre provides one of the world’s best environments in which to do research on the hippocampus and parahippocampus and their relationships with other parts of the brain as a major substrate for learning and memory, so I feel honored and really fortunate to be part of the team. Having lived and worked in Trondheim now for almost half a year, it feels like I have been able to continue and expand the already very productive and influential collaboration we have established over the years”, he says.

Menno made it no secret that the main reason why he chose NTNU was his desire to return to full-time research.

“It is a pleasure to be able to spend much more time on research. Of course, it is not really full-time, since I do have teaching obligations, but since my teaching activities mainly focus around neuroscience it feels like I am spending almost all of my time on what I like best, neuroscience”, he says.

His research goals are also in line with the work being done by the CBM’s Moser group.

“The aim of my group is to understand the relationships between how neuronal networks are wired up, and their function. The structures we are interested in are all involved in learning and memory processes, as far as we know. We also have strong indications that their individual contributions to learning and memory are different, yet most likely complementary, and we know that the wiring of their individual networks is very different. So, based on information about how brain structures are wired, can I formulate hypotheses on function? Those hypotheses then should be tested, for example using the Mosers’ approaches. Of course, the process works the other way around as well. If they have an idea about a specific function, can we look for anything particular in the network that may be related to or explain that function?”, he wonders.

Witter’s approach to understanding the brain is building the bridge between the basic research that the Moser group performs, and the clinically oriented research of other parts of the medical faculty.

“If one has a specific idea/hypothesis about what parts of the hippocampal and parahippocampal areas are doing, one promising new way to test those hypotheses, aside from searching for patients that have lesions specific to that area, is to use brain imaging approaches such as magnetic resonance imaging. This is now used to test functional hypotheses related to differences between hippocampus and parahippocampus, with the eventual goal to differentiate between different subareas of the hippocampus and parahippocampus. I have established a collaborative effort with the MI centre at NTNU, where the focus is to develop technology and paradigms to find differentiation within the hippocampus. I also supervise a PhD student in Amsterdam who is focusing on differentiations within the parahippocampal domain. He will join the NTNU MI center as a postdoctoral student later this year. To me this is just another logical extension from structure to function. Moreover, my skills as a neuroanatomist can be quite instrumental to imaging, since I can be of assistance in interpreting where brain activation is found related to certain behaviors”, he says.

Witter’s neuroanatomy laboratory is state-of-the-art, and is almost up and running. The lab will be fully functional with both people and equipment in place in 2008; two technicians joined Menno a year ago, and the time is now right to fill the lab with more colleagues.

“Most likely 3 – 4 new colleagues will join us in 2008. We currently have two technicians who started to work with me in the first quarter of 2007, after taking their initial training for about 4 months in Amsterdam. We have also attracted the interest of quite a few students both from the medical faculty (students with a research focus) as well as students with different backgrounds through the master’s program, which indicates that neuroanatomical research may very well be attractive to young researchers, providing them with good career opportunities because of my group being part of the centre”, he observes.

The technicians have a background in biophysics, and Menno emphasizes the importance of, and need for, different scientific backgrounds in his lab. “These different backgrounds actually provide the ability to operate instruments that will allow us to get started combining more biological approaches with the rather complicated equipment that we are using, such as confocal laser scanning microscopy, electron microscopy, in vitro electrophysiology, and, in 2008, voltage sensitive dye imaging. They have helped enormously in setting up the new lab, from all the ordering that is involved, all the way from paper and gloves, through chemicals up to equipment such as scales and freezers” he says.

Students have already started working in his lab, and Menno is currently tutoring one ‘research student’ and a post-doc. His group will grow during 2008, and by next Christmas it will have reached what he thinks is the right size.

“In August 2007 we were joined by a research student, and in October my first post-doc arrived, who has a background in invertebrate neuroanatomy and physiology. I had a PhD student in Amsterdam, paid for by CBM, who graduated from the master’s programme in neuroscience in Amsterdam. She visits Trondheim to work at the centre now and then. We have accepted a PhD student who will start in March, who has background training through the master’s programme in neuroscience at NTNU. In April we will employ a second post-doc who has a PhD in neuroscience and metabolism, and in the course of the year I hope to employ two more post-docs; one with experience in optical imaging and in vitro electrophysiology, and one with a background in neuroanatomy. With all the people in place and some more master’s students who have expressed an interest in joining, I feel that the group is reaching the approximate size I had in mind. It also has sufficient variation with respect to background to facilitate scientific discussions”, he adds.