How synapses are formed: DFG once again funds cutting-edge research by Volker Haucke
Prof. Dr. Volker Haucke, Director at the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at Freie Universität Berlin, has once again been awarded the prestigious Reinhart Koselleck Grant by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). He will receive 1 million euros over five years for his innovative interdisciplinary research project. The project addresses the fundamental question of how presynapses – the transmitting junctions of nerve cells – assemble from small transport packages in the axon.
Our ability to move, think, feel and remember is based on communication between nerve cells at special contact points called synapses. The strength of these connections can change – and it is precisely these changes in the smallest of spaces that are crucial for our ability to learn and for higher brain functions. Although much is known about signal transmission, it remains unclear how synapses form during development and change in the mature brain. “Our research project will help to close this fundamental knowledge gap,” says Volker Haucke.
For the first time, the nanoscale structure and molecular composition of the transport packets that transport central building blocks to the developing synapses will be deciphered. The aim is to clarify whether certain proteins are already present in functional units and how the packets change along their way. Particular focus will be placed on synaptic vesicle proteins and voltage-gated calcium channels, which are crucial for signal transmission in nerve cells. The findings promise new insights into the fundamentals of neural communication and open up prospects for the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases such as multiple sclerosis and dementia.
Volker Haucke and his team are pursuing a multidisciplinary approach, combining state-of-the-art structural biology, proteomics, cell biology and computational modelling to decipher the complex organisational processes of synapse formation with unprecedented detail.
The President of Freie Universität Berlin and spokesperson for the Berlin University Alliance, Prof. Dr. Günter M. Ziegler, emphasises: “Volker Haucke is an exceptional, inspiring researcher who has received numerous awards for his work. Through his commitment to the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence and other major collaborative projects, he has made a substantial contribution to Berlin’s international leadership in life sciences research. In addition, he teaches at Freie Universität Berlin with particular dedication. The approval of his new interdisciplinary Reinhard Koselleck Project will enable him to conduct particularly important, high-risk and critical research in a particularly unbureaucratic manner. We congratulate him on this achievement!"
This is the second time Volker Haucke has received the prestigious DFG grant. In 2017, he received a five-year grant from the Reinhart Koselleck Programme for his highly innovative research into how nerve cells connect and communicate with each other stably over decades.
About Volker Haucke
Volker Haucke studied biochemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin (FU) and received his PhD summa cum laude from the Biozentrum at the University of Basel, Switzerland. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University in the United States, he established his own laboratory at the University of Göttingen before returning to the Freie Universität Berlin as a professor of biochemistry. Since 2012, he has been director of the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie in Berlin.
At the FU, Haucke is not only a key player in the field of pharmaceutical and biological research – he is also active in the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where he makes key contributions to molecular neuroscience as a scientific member. His scientific reputation is reflected in numerous honours: he is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Academia Europea (AE), and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In 2017, he received the Avanti Award from the American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and in 2020 he was awarded both an ERC Advanced Grant and the Feldberg Prize. In 2025, he was awarded a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
About the DFG's Reinhart Koselleck Programme:
With the Reinhart Koselleck Programme, the DFG supports outstanding scientists working on highly innovative and risky projects that would be virtually impossible to realise under other funding procedures. Funding can last up to five years and is endowed with up to 1.25 million euros. The programme is named after the eminent German historian Reinhart Koselleck.
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Prof. Dr. Volker Haucke
Section Physiology und Molecular Cell Biology
Leibniz- Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP)
E-Mail: haucke@fmp-berlin.de
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