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. He was elected chairperson of the Scientific Council of the Max Planck Society in 2017.

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 demonstration of the existence of "pinwheels" in the mammalian visual system by intrsinsic optical imaging. (Bonhoeffer & Grinvald, Nature 1991)
  2. the demonstration that neurotrophins, and in particular the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), play an important 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)
  4. the demonstration that hippocampal spines show an activity-dependent, bidirectional structural plasticity. (Nägerl et al., Neuron 2004)
  5. the demonstration that long-lasting synaptic plasticity depends on both, protein synthesis and protein degradation. (Fonseca et al., Neuron 2006)
  6. the insight that that new synaptic contacts established during a learning process stay put, even the learned information is forgotten. This facilitates later relearning. (Hofer et al., Nature 2009)

Other activities

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. In 2020, Bonhoeffer was elected as member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.[7]

References
  1. Professor Bryan Grenfell and Professor Tobias Bonhoeffer join the Wellcome Trust Board of Governors Wellcome Trust, press release of July 7, 2014.
  2. Tobias Bonhoeffer Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology.
  3. Senate, as of April 6, 2020 Max Planck Society.
  4. Scientific Advisory Board Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM).
  5. Neuroscience Selection Advisory Board Gruber Foundation.
  6. Scientific Advisory Board Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FIM).
  7. 2020 newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences
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