Florian Engert Named Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Cambridge, Mass. September 7, 2009 - Neurobiologist Florian Engert, a pioneer in the development of the larval zebrafish as a system for study of neural circuits and behavior, has been named professor of molecular and cellular biology in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2009. "Professor Engert is a scientist of remarkable scope, having made important contributions to two distinct fields, visual system development and motor system function," says Jeremy Bloxham, dean of science in FAS. "A highly creative researcher, his publications are consistently of the highest quality. He is also an outstanding teacher, a wonderful colleague, and a generous member of the neuroscience community." The goal of Engert's zebrafish studies has been a major goal of the field of systems neuroscience: simultaneous observation of all neurons in a fully functioning brain. He was among the earliest adopters of the larval zebrafish as a model organism for such research. These fish are transparent, allowing easy viewing of their neural networks, and can be genetically modified, allowing the use of markers to observe neural behavior.