Flavio Donato, PhD

Assistant Professor for Neurobiology

Flavio received his B.S. and M.S. in Biotechnology from the University of Rome, “Sapienza”, before transitioning to neurobiology. From Rome, he moved north to work with Pico Caroni at the FMI in Basel, Switzerland, where he earned his PhD studying microcircuit remodelling processes underlying learning in the adult. Fed up with Swiss sunshine and good weather, he moved further north to join Edvard and May-Britt Moser at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim, Norway, where he investigated the functional development of grid cells.

Missing chocolate, Flavio moved back to Basel, where, when not in the lab, he can be found enjoying the vibrant musical and artistic Basler scene, or feeding his schoggiweggli addiction in one of the city bakeries.

Steffen Kandler, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Since long, Steffen has been intrigued by the workings of neural circuits. Steffen received his PhD from the University of Freiburg, where he studied the activity of small neuronal networks grown in a culture dish. After a postdoc with Vincent Bonin at NERF in Leuven, where he investigated the activities of neurons and astrocytes in the visual cortex of behaving mice using calcium imaging, Steffen joined the Donato lab to focus on neurons in hippocampal circuits. Steffen´s main interest lies in understanding how neural populations in the CA3 region of hippocampus process distinct spatial information, and how their activities are reflected in the navigational repertoire of infant and adult mice. For that, he is using a combination of behavioural assays and two-photon calcium imaging.

Vilde Aamodt Kveim

PhD Student

Vilde received her Bachelor in Biology and MSc in Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. In her master's project she studied remapping of place cells in the Kentros group at the Kavli Institute of Systems Neuroscience. After a year as a research assistant in the Kentros group, she joined the Donato lab as a PhD Student.

When she is not in the lab, Vilde can be found hiking in the mountains or chilling along the Rhine.

Fabia Imhof

Technical Research Associate

Fabia is originally from the area and underwent all her studies at the University of Basel. After her M.S in Developmental Biology at the DBM and some traveling, she decided to skip doing a PhD and become a technical associate in a structural biology lab at the Biozentrum. After this (and some more traveling), she changed into neurobiology and started in the lab of Sonja Hofer where she studied circuits in the visual cortex and thalamus. When Sonja's lab moved to London, Fabia was happy to join Flavio in his exciting task to start a new lab. 

Besides work, Fabia is a passionate scuba diver, likes going to concerts and loves popcorn.