Dr. Etienne Serbe-Kamp

Background

With a background in circuit neuroscience of motion vision in Drosophila from my PhD and
Postdoc, I started dedicating myself to democratizing science through Summer Fellowships,
Science Communication, and Citizen Science. My research spans the investigation of
(electro)physiological signals in living organisms especially humans, insects, and plants.

Interests

visual neuroscience, hidden senses, information processing, biodiversity

Current Projects/Activities

I am co-directing Summer Fellowships
(https://blog.backyardbrains.com/category/fellowship/) with Backyard Brains, where we invite undergraduates and teachers to perform their own scientific investigations and present the
results at local or global conferences and/or publish it in peer-reviewed journals.
I participate in events that promote open science, scientific literacy, and strengthening of the link between science and society (https://www.wissenschaftsjahr.de/2022/ideenlauf). As co-founder of the science collective Hirnkastl (www.hirnkastl.science) I am giving science lectures at schools, open events, and universities (https://youtu.be/Y_-fSlvmKa8). We prototyped a Biodiversity Citizen Science project called ERGo! (https://riojournal.com/article/96476/), where we perform electrophysiological recordings of insects and plants to investigate their health, visual sensitivity, and environmental interactions.
With the current project Co-sense, we use eye-tracking technology to study interactions with climate change scenario maps among museum visitors and students globally. Alongside, we gather responses to questionnaires on climate anxiety, low-carbon behaviors, and climate change knowledge, aiming to understand the relationship between visual engagement and environmental awareness.

Publications

Madariaga D, Arro D, Irarrázaval C, Soto A, Guerra F, Romero A, Ovalle F, Fedrigolli E,
DesRosiers T, Serbe-Kamp É & Marzullo T (2024); A library of electrophysiological responses in plants - a model of transversal education and open science, Plant Signaling & Behavior, 19:.1

Ammer G, Serbe-Kamp E, Mauss AS, Richter FG, Fendl S, Borst A (2023); Multi-level visual
motion opponency implemented by a single cell type. Nat Neurosci 26, 1894–1905.

Mishra A, Serbe-Kamp E, Borst A, Haag J (2023); Voltage to Calcium Transformation Enhances Direction Selectivity in Drosophila T4 neurons. Journal of Neuroscience. Journal of
Neuroscience, 43 (14) 2497-2514.

Serbe-Kamp É, Bemme J, Pollak DJ, Mayer K (2023); Open Citizen Science: fostering open
knowledge with participation. Research Ideas and Outcomes 9: e96476.

Eisenbeiser S, Serbe-Kamp E, Gage GJ, Marzullo TC (2022); Gills Just Want to Have Fun: Can Fish Play Games, Just like Us? Animals 12(13):1684.

Shin J, Serbe E, Gage GJ (2021); Authentic Research Investigations of a Controversial
Question: Can Plants Learn? The American Biology Teacher 83(4):222–228.

Hörmann N, Schilling T, Haji Ali A, Serbe E, Mayer C, Borst A, Pujol-Martí J (2020); A
combinatorial code of transcription factors specifies subtypes of visual motion-sensing neurons in Drosophila. Development 147(9).

Drews MS, Leonhardt A, Pirogova N, Richter FG, Schuetzenberger A, Braun L, Serbe E, Borst A (2020); Dynamic Signal Compression for Robust Motion Vision in Flies. Current Biology P209–2221.E8.

Pollak DJ, Feller KD, Serbe E, Mircic S, Gage GJ (2019); An Electrophysiological Investigation of Power-Amplification in the Ballistic Mantis Shrimp Punch. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education 17(2):T12.

Leonhardt A, Meier M, Serbe E, Eichner H, Borst A (2017); Neural mechanisms underlying
sensitivity to reverse-phi motion in the fly. PLoS ONE 12(12):e0189019.

Serbe E (2016); Analysis of the neural circuit underlying the detection of visual motion in
Drosophila melanogaster. PhD thesis.

Haag J, Arenz A, Serbe E, Gabbiani F, Borst A (2016); Complementary mechanisms create
direction selectivity in the fly. eLife 5:e17421.

Leonhardt A, Ammer G, Meier M, Serbe E, Bahl A, Borst A (2016); Asymmetry of Drosophila
ON and OFF Motion Detectors Enhances Real-World Velocity Estimation. Nature Neuroscience 19:706-715.

Serbe E, Meier M, Leonhardt A, Borst A (2016); Comprehensive Characterization of the Major Presynaptic Elements to the Drosophila OFF Motion Detector. Neuron 89(4):829-41.

Bahl A, Serbe E, Meier M, Ammer G, Borst A (2015); Neural Mechanisms for Drosophila
Contrast Vision. Neuron 88(6):1240-52.

M Meier, E Serbe, MS Maisak, J Haag, BJ Dickson, A Borst (2014); Neural circuit components of the Drosophila OFF motion vision pathway. Current Biology 24(4), 385-392

Mauss AS, Meier M, Serbe E, Borst A (2014); Optogenetic and Pharmacologic Dissection of
Feedforward Inhibition in Drosophila Motion Vision. Journal of Neuroscience 34(6):2254-2263.

Maisak MS, Haag J, Ammer G, Serbe E, Meier M, Leonhardt A, Schilling T, Bahl A, Rubin GM, Nern A, Dickson BJ, Reiff DF, Hopp E, Borst A (2013); A Directional Tuning Map of Drosophila Elementary Motion Detectors. Nature 500: 212–216.