Research

Research Priorities: Microscope development, multi-quantum microscope, two-photon fluorescence microscope, three-dimensional serial block-face scanning electron microscope, BROPA method, circuit diagrams of the brain, neurological diseases

Winfried Denk is a physicist. His research priority is the new and further development of microscopes. He has developed microscopes (multi-quantum microscope) that make nerve cells and their changes visible in the intact brain. These methods have brought new insights to neuroscience. The microscopes can be used to achieve better results while using less energy. As part of his work Winfried Denk wishes to decode the circuit diagrams of the brain to improve our understanding of diseases.

Winfried Denk co-developed the two-photon fluorescence microscope. Using this multi-quantum microscope, nerve cells can be observed in the living brain and three-dimensional images of new tissue can be produced. The microscope also makes cells visible which are up to one millimetre below the surface. The two-photon fluorescence microscope uses low-energy red or infrared laser light. Two light particles (photons) are shot simultaneously at a dye molecule and cause the dye to glow. Neuroscientists around the world are using two-photon microscopes to research the functioning of nerve cells.

Denk and his team also developed the three-dimensional serial block-face scanning electron microscope (SBFSEM). In this case a whole piece of tissue is placed into the electron microscope. In a fully automated process the microscope scans the surface of the piece of tissue and saves an image. In the next step an ultrathin slice of tissue is cut off and an image of the now exposed plane is also saved. The whole piece of tissue is captured in this way. Finally, a computer program compiles all of the stored images. In the computer, the tissue structure can be seen as a three-dimensional image on which even the smallest nerve processes can be identified.

In further research Winfried Denk would like to create the full circuit diagram (connectome) of a mouse brain. To achieve this he will use the serial block-face scanning electron microscope he developed. In recent work he has developed a method (BROPA method) with his team, in which it is possible to stain a complete mouse brain, not just individual tissue pieces. As part of his research Winfried Denk wishes to decode the functioning of the brain and thereby improve our understanding of diseases of the nervous system.

Career

• since 2011 Director, Department of Electrons – Photons – Neurons, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany
• since 2009 Senior Fellow, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase USA
• since 2002 Professor, Department for Physics and Astronomy, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
• 1999-2011 Director, Department of Biomedical Optics, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany
• 1991-1999 Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, USA
• 1990 PhD in Physics
• 1989-1991 Postdoctoral Fellow, IBM Research Lab, Rüschlikon, Switzerland
• 1984-1989 Cornell University, New York, USA
• 1984 Degree in Physics
• 1981-1984 Degree, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland
• 1978-1981 Physics Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU Munich), Munich, Germany

Projects

• 2017-2021 Applicant, Priority Programme 2041, “Functional connectomics of the binocular optic flow processing circuit in zebrafish”, German Research Foundation (DFG)

Honours and Memberships

• since 2016 Member, Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Germany
• since 2016 Honorary Professor, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
• 2015 International Prize for Translational Neuroscience, Gertrud Reemtsma Foundation, Cologne, Germany
• 2015  Brain Prize, Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark
• since 2015 Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany
• since 2014 Member, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)
• since 2013 Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences, USA
• 2012 Kavli-Prize in Neuroscience, The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, Norway
• 2006 Alden Spencer Award, Columbia University, New York, USA
• 2003 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, DFG, Germany
• 2000 Rank Prize in Opto-Electronics, Rank Foundation, London, UK
• 1998 Young Investigator Award of the Biophysical Society, Rockwell, USA
• 1986-1989 Graduate Research Fellowship, IBM, Armonk, USA