QUALIFICATIONS AND CAREER

Degree programme

Doctorate

Career stages

1984-1990

1995

Since 2016

2010-2015

2007-2010

2004-2007

1998-2004

1995-1998

Study of Biology, Technical University of Braunschweig and Technical University Munich, Germany

Biology, Technical University of Munich, Germany

Professor for Physiology, Chair of the Institute of Physiology, Dept. I, University of Freiburg, Medical Faculty

Lichtenbergprofessor (W3) for Systemic and Cellular Neurophysiology, University of Freiburg, Medical Faculty

Full-Professor (Personal Chair) for Neuroscience, University of Aberdeen, Institute for Medical Sciences / UK

Assistant Professor (C1), University of Freiburg, Medical Faculty

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Freiburg, Prof. P. Jonas

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia / USA, Prof. M. Nusbaum, collaboration Prof. E. Marder, Brandeis / USA

SUPPLEMENTARY CAREER INFORMATION

2 children, born 1996, 2002.

Parental leave: 1996: 6 months, 2002-2003

ACTIVITIES IN THE RESEARCH SYSTEM

Committees and Faculty Responsibilities

Since 2024

Since 2023

Since 2022

Since 2022

2021-2025

Since 2020

2018-2025

2014-2022

2015-2022

2015-2017

2014-2022

2012-2014

Speaker of CRC-TRR384 IN-CODE

Member of the German National Academy of Sciences ‘Leopoldina’

Member of FOR5159 ‘Resolving prefrontal flexibility’

Member of the Tenure Track Commission of the University of Freiburg

Member of Alexander von Humboldt reviewing board for Humboldt Professorships

Special field-reviewer (‘Fachkollegin’) for the German Science Foundation (DFG) ‘Cognitive and systemic behavioural Neurobiology’

ERC Advanced Grant

Gender Representative Freiburg University, Medical Faculty

Speaker of the Research Unit FOR2143 ‘Synaptic plasticity in Interneurons’

Director for ‘Life sciences and Engineering’ at Excellence Initiative ‘Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies’ (FRIAS), University of Freiburg

Board member of the Medical Faculty Commission ‘Structural and Strategic Development of the Medical Faculty’, University of Freiburg

Vice-director ‘Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine’ (SGBM) funded by the German Excellence Initiative / University of Freiburg

Selected Reviewer Activities

Journal reviewer: Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Comm, PNAS, Cell, Hippocampus, Cell Reports, Neuron

Organization of scientific meetings

2026

2026

2025

2023

2025

International Symposium, ‘From Synapses and Microcircuits to Behavior’, Freiburg, organizer.

FENS Barcelona, organizer Minisymposium ‘Interneurons shape cortical population codes in dependence of experience’

Gordon Conference ‘Inhibition in the CNS’, USA, Keynote speaker

Gordon Conference ‘Inhibition in the CNS’, Switzerland, organizer

SFN San Diego, USA, organizer Minisymposium ‘Interneurons in learning and memory’

SUPERVISION OF RESEARCHERS IN EARLY CAREER PHASES

Since 2007    >18 doctoral dissertations (MD and PhD)

SCIENTIFIC RESULTS

Category A – Articles in peer-reviewed journals, contributions to peer-reviewed conferences or to anthology volumes, and book publications

Shared first authorship is indicated with an asterisk (*); shared last authorship is indicated with a hashtag (^#); other shared authorships are indicated with a plus (⁺).

1. Cholvin T^#, Bartos M^#. The dentate gyrus efficiently converges LEC and MEC inputs into multimodal, highly specific and reliable environmental representations. Nature Neuroscience (in press). We provide first evidence that entorhinal cortex inputs are converted in a more reliable code with higher precision and granularity.
2. Yuan M, Cazala A, Goedeke S, Leibold C, Sauer J-F, Bartos M, 2025. Predictive goal coding by dentate gyrus somatostatin-expressing interneurons in male mice. Nature Comm 16,5382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60841-y. Here we show that dentate gyrus interneurons provide predictive coding of reward sites and rapidly reconfigure their activity once the reward is no longer available. Such a fast coding scheme is important for updating our behaviour to the continuously changing environmental demands.
3. Hainmueller T, Cazala A, Huang L-W, and Bartos M, 2024. Subfield-specific interneuron circuits govern the hippocampal response to novelty in male mice. Nat Comm 15, 714. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44882-3 Here we demonstrate that dendritic inhibition provided by dentate gyrus SOMIs play a key role in the discrimination of contextual situations.
4. Huang L-W, Torelli F, Chen H-L, and Bartos M, 2024. Context and space coding in mossy cell population activity. Cell Reports 43, 114386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114386. By using deep learning methods on 2-Photon imaging data obtained from the hilus of mice performing an goal-oriented learning task, we show that mossy cells can discriminate even between small changes in the environment thereby supporting pattern discrimination in the dentate gyrus.
5. Kaufhold D, Maristany De Las Casas E, Ocaña-Fernández MDÁ, Cazala A, Yuan M, Kulik A, Cholvin T, Steup S, Sauer J-F, Eyre MD, Elgueta C, Strüber M, and Bartos M, 2024. Spine plasticity of dentate gyrus parvalbumin-positive interneurons is regulated by experience. Cell Reports 43, 113806. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113806 Here we show that interneurons can be spiny and that spine density depends on the experience of the animal and has consequences on the synaptic integration of the cells in the dentate gyrus network.
6. Muysers H, Chen H-L, Hahn J, Folschweiller S, Sigurdsson T, Sauer J-F, and Bartos M, 2024. A persistent prefrontal reference frame across time and task rules. Nat Comm 15, 2115. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46350-4 We identified a prefrontal representation of task space that is stable over time, contexts and across rule shifts but requires rule learning to stabilize. We propose that the reference frame provides an anchoring point that allows the animals to progress along well learned trajectories, and it implies that flexible changes in behaviour get embedded in the already established reference frame of the task.
7. Cholvin T and Bartos M, 2022. Hemisphere-specific spatial representation by hippocampal granule cells. Nat Comm 13, 6227. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34039-5 Here we provide first evidence for inter-hemispheric differences in the spatial coding in the DG. Spatial tuning, context-selectivity and run-to-run place field reliability was higher for DG place cells in the left than the right hemisphere.
8. Cholvin T, Hainmueller T, and Bartos M, 2021. The hippocampus converts dynamic entorhinal inputs into stable spatial maps. Neuron 109, 3135-3148.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2021.09.019 This is the first study we apply 2-Photon imaging of inputs from the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) to the hippocampal areas DG, CA1-3. We show that higher place field reliability in hippocampal place cells provides information about location and context more accurately than MEC inputs
9. Elgueta C and Bartos M, 2019. Dendritic inhibition differentially regulates excitability of dentate gyrus parvalbumin-expressing interneurons and granule cells. Nat Comm 10, 5561. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13533-3 This study shows that GABAergic inhibition onto parvalbumin-expressing interneurons is shunting close to the soma but hyperpolarizing at distal dendrites and reports on the functional consequence
10. Hainmueller T and Bartos M, 2018. Parallel emergence of stable and dynamic memory engrams in the hippocampus. Nature 558, 292–296. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0191-2 This is the first study that applied 2-Photon imaging of the DG and hippocampus in mice exposed to virtual realities and shows that DG place cells have higher spatial stability across days and discriminate less between environments than CA1-3 place cells

 Category B

1. Spruston N, Piskorowski R, Chevaleyre V, Eyre MD, McBain CJ, and Bartos M, 2023. Structural and functional properties of hippocampal neurons’. The Hippocampus Book, 2^nd Edition, Nov. 2023. Oxford University Press (USA) ISBN-10
2. Hainmueller T and Bartos M, 2020. Dentate gyrus circuits for encoding, retrieval and discrimination of episodic memories. Nat Rev Neurosci 21, 153–168. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0260-z This is the first review summarizing the current knowledge of DGs’ function as input gate to the hippocampus.

ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS

2025

2018-2025

2009-2005

2012

2012

2010

1995-1997

Koselleck Project (1.25 Mil €)

ERC Advanced Grant (2.5 Mil €)

Lichtenberg Award/Volkswagen Foundation/Germany (1.9 Mil €)

Schram Award for basic Neuroscience (280.000 €)

Most cited review; Bartos et al. Nat Rev Neurosci 2007

Best publications in 2010 by Faculty of Biology; Sauer & Bartos (2010) J. Neurosci.

Postdoctoral Fellowship from the German Science Foundation (DFG)