Silvia Arber, is a Professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and Senior Group Leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) in Basel, Switzerland. She graduated from the University of Basel and performed her postdoctoral work at Columbia University in New York, before returning to Basel in 2000 to establish her independent research group.

Arber’s laboratory is interested in understanding the principles by which neuronal circuits orchestrate accurate and timely control of movement. Using multi-faceted approaches combining many technologies in mice, they study nervous-system-wide neuronal circuits involved in motor control, including how brain circuits interact with spinal circuits to produce body movements. Recent work has focused on the motor brainstem to unravel the identity of circuits at the intersection between planning and execution. The work also aims to discover mechanisms involved in circuit plasticity during motor learning and in response to disease or injury.

Arber has been recognized for her pioneering research with a number of prizes, including the National Latsis Prize (2003), the Schellenberg Prize (2003), the Friedrich Miescher Award (2008), the Otto Nägeli Award (2014), the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2017), the NAS Pradel Research Award (2018), and the Brain Prize by the Lundbeck Foundation (2022). Arber has been elected an International Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020 and secured three consecutive ERC Advanced Investigator Grants from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2010, 2016 and 2022.

Abstract: Movement is the behavioral output of the nervous system. This lecture will focus on recent work elucidating the organization and function of neuronal circuits central to the regulation of distinct forms of body movements, including locomotion and skilled forelimb movements. It will show that dedicated circuit modules in different regions of the brainstem and their interactions within the motor system play key roles in the generation of diverse actions.