We are interested in how whole-body neural circuits coordinate the movement of an animal body. To understand this, we study the experimentally accessible and small larval stages of the marine annelid Platynereis. The nereid has recently emerged as a powerful new experimental system for neural circuits and development. With serial electron microscopy, we have reconstructed the entire nervous and effector systems of the larva. Through activity imaging, behavioural experiments, transgenes and CRISPR manipulations we can link genes to neurons and behaviours. In the talk I will discuss the coordination of locomotor cilia, the startle circuit and the postural control system of the larva. The nereid is an ideal system for connectome mapping and experiments and offers a fresh perspective on how the brain coordinates an entire body.

Gaspar Jékely is a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Exeter, which he joined in 2017. He studied Biology and obtained his PhD in 1999 at the Eötvös Loránd Universities in Budapest. He then worked as a postdoc at the EMBL, Heidelberg in the laboratory of Pernille Rorth and then Detlev Arendt. Between 2007-2017 he was a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany. His research interests include the structure, function and evolution of neural circuits in marine ciliated larvae and the origin and early evolution of nervous systems. Since 2019 he is a Wellcome Trust senior investigator. More information is available on his lab website.