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Welcome to FLiACT!
Understanding how the brain works represents one of the greatest challenges in modern science. The goal of the FLiACT programme is to train young researchers in the concepts and techniques necessary to study integrated brain functions. FLiACT is a pan-European training network interconnecting 8 academic partners and 3 small companies (SMEs) specialised in complementary fields of research from molecular and behavioural neurogenetics to electrophysiology, bioengineering and biomedicine.
FLiACT focuses on one model organism, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila is a premier system to clarify the molecular and cellular logic of perception and cognition. It has also emerged as a powerful model to study the genetic bases of neurodegenerative diseases affecting humans. The fly community can now capitalise on an unprecedented toolkit to probe the function of neural circuits in vivo and to interfere with their functions in a highly controlled manner.
The fruit-fly brain
Photo: JULIE SIMPSON & PHUONG CHUNG/janelia farm
In collaborative and personalised research projects, FLiACT fellows seek to elucidate how neural circuit computation controls behaviour and how circuit-function relationships are genetically encoded. Our network will organise a series of interdisciplinary workshops on neurogenetics, neuroanatomy, neuroimaging and behavioural analysis and transferable skills. FLiACT intends to have a timely structuring effect in a strategic area for European research and technology: systems neuroscience.
