Variability in Brain Development

German Research Foundation Approves Funding for Research Unit at the Institute of Biology at Freie Universität Berlin / Partnership with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz / Extended Funding for an Additional Research Center. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has founded a new research unit at Freie Universität that will examine the fundamental principles of brain development. The research unit includes thirteen principal investigators who are involved in nine closely linked research projects that explore how variability affects brain development despite identical genetic information. For example, identical twins have the same genetic makeup but different personalities. These differences might stem from different life experiences or chance variations that occur during brain development. The extent to which these two factors might contribute to personality differences remains unclear and is difficult to study in humans. The new research unit is called "From Imprecision to Robustness in Neural Circuit Assembly." Professor Peter Robin Hiesinger at the Institute of Biology will head the research unit, according to a statement on Friday from the DFG in Bonn.