Background
Adaption by an organism to changing environmental conditions (Environmental Stress)is primarily designed to maximise that organism’s biological fitness. That behavioural and physiological adaption can be passed down from one generation to the next without alterations to an organisms DNA sequence was first shown in mice. Understanding the mechanism by which the ‘maternal’ environment influences the fitness of offspring (trans-generational phenotypic plasticity) is an important goal in the study of human diseases such as schizophrenia and depression where the underlying disease aetiology is complex.
We use a simple nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans as a model to elucidate the adaptive mechanisms that underlie the trans-generational effects of environmental stressors.
The Lab
Our lab was established in 2011 and is based at a the Weissenau Psychiatric Hospital Ravensburg, southern Germany, some 85km south of the main university campus in Ulm. In addition to the regular laboratory space and equipment such as brightfield and fluorescent microscopes, we have a worm growing room, sterile facilites for cell culture work and a biolistic transformation facility for generating mutants, knockout and marker strains.