Anna-Sophia Wahl

• Professor at the Institute of Anatomy and Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, University Hospital, LMU Munich, 2022-present
• Junior Group Leader in the Laboratory of Neural Circuit Dynamics (head: Prof. F. Helmchen) at the Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich, 2019-present
• Resident at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Germany 2016-2021
• Postdoc at the Brain Research Institute, University and ETH Zurich, Switzerland 2015-2016
• PhD at the Brain Research Institute, University and ETH Zurich 2011-2014
• Medical studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland, and Columbia University in New York, USA 2004-2011

Dr. Anna-Sophia Wahl seeks to unravel in a mouse model how intense physical training promotes brain plasticity to stabilize neuronal circuitry for memory encoding on a cellular resolution level. She will directly study nerve cell activity and the interplay of neurons in networks of the hippocampus, a brain structure substantially involved in memory formation and consolidation, in the behaving, awake animal, performing cognitive and sensorimotor tasks under the microscope. Due to the chronic window implantation over the hippocampus the same neuronal networks and even their degradation after CNS injury can be studied over time in dependence of the behavioral phenotype. The here developed rodent model may not only lead to a better understanding of causal relationships between degenerating neuronal networks and the decline of specific cognitive features but may in particular reveal new biological targets and optimized rehabilitative treatment options to prevent dementia.

• Best publication award 2014 of the Swiss Society of Neuroscience, 2014
• Prize of the Faculty of Science, University of Zurich for an excellent PhD thesis, 2014
• Participant of the MD/PhD Programm at the University of Heidelberg, 2007-2011
• Participant of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting upon nomination of the Medical Faculty, University of Heidelberg 2007
• Scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation 2007-2011
• Scholarship of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation e. V. 2005-2011