Tobias Bonhoeffer

Tobias Bonhoeffer (born January 9, 1960 in Berkeley, California) is a German neurobiologist. He is director at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and head of the department Synapses - Circuits - Plasticity.

Education

Bonhoeffer studied physics at the University of Tübingen and conducted the research for his PhD thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen.

Career

Bonhoeffer worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Rockefeller University and at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt. He led an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and was appointed Director at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in 1998. Between 2008 and 2011 Bonhoeffer was head of the Biomedical Section of the Max Planck Society.

Scientific focus

Bonhoeffer's scientific research is focused on the cellular foundations of learning and memory, as well as on the early postnatal development of the brain.

Bonhoeffer's work led to a number of important scientific discoveries. Among these are:

1. the optical verification of the existence of "pinwheels" in the mammalian visual system via high-resolution microscopic techniques. (Bonhoeffer & Grinvald, Nature 1991)
2. the proof that neurotrophins, and in particular the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), play a central role in synaptic plasticity. (Korte et al., PNAS 1995 & 1996)
3. the observation that the functional strengthening of synapses goes along with morphological changes of the nerve cell, more specifically with the formation of dendritic spines. (Engert & Bonhoeffer, Nature 1999)

Other activities

• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Member of the Science Advisory Board (since 2016)
• Wellcome Trust, Member of the Board of Governors (since 2014)

Recognition

Bonhoeffer received, among others, the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine in 2004. He is member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) since 2009 and member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina since 2010.

External links

• Homepage of the department of Synapses - Circuits - Plasticity

Wellcome Trust
Centres and institutes	Current Francis Crick Institute Gurdon Institute Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour Science Learning Centres WTC for Cell-Matrix Research WTC for Gene Regulation and Expression WTC for Human Genetics WTC for Mitochondrial Research WTC for Molecular Parasitology WTC for Neuroimaging WTC for Stem Cell Research Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Former Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine Wellcome Research Laboratories
Projects and facilities	1000 Genomes Project Big Picture Cambridge Biomedical Campus Cancer Genome Project ChEMBL COSMIC cancer database DECIPHER Diamond Light Source eLife Ensembl Farmcare Genome Reference Consortium Human Genome Project Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust MEROPS Pfam Rfam UK Biobank Wellcome Collection Wellcome Genome Campus Wellcome Library WormBase
Board of Governors	Tobias Bonhoeffer Alan Brown Damon Buffini William Burns Kay Davies Michael Ferguson Bryan Grenfell Richard Hynes Anne Johnson Eliza Manningham-Buller Peter Rigby
Executive Board	Jeremy Farrar Stephen Caddick Simon Chaplin Tim Livett Clare Matterson Ted Smith Danny Truell
Former directors	Peter Williams (1965–1991) Bridget Ogilvie (1991–1998) Michael Dexter (1998–2008) Mark Walport (2003–2013)
Other key people	William Castell Dominic Cadbury Harold Cook Oliver Franks Roger Gibbs Henry Dale Roy Porter David Steel John Sulston Henry Wellcome
Awards and fellowships	Capital Awards Collaborative Awards in Science Investigator Awards in Science Institutional Strategic Support Fund Science Strategic Award Sir Henry Dale Fellowship Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship Wellcome Book Prize Wellcome Image Awards Wellcome Trust Centre Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
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