Lecture: Lighting up neuropeptide signaling in the context-dependent regulation of behavior

Professor
Department of Biology
KU Leuven
Belgium

Isabel Beets is also a Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom.

Her doctoral work was on the role of vasopressin/oxytocin neuropeptides in C. elegans at KU Leuven (2009-2013) and identified an ancestral role of this neuropeptide family as neuromodulators of learning circuits. For her postdoctoral training, Isabel joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK) as an EMBO and Marie-Curie fellow, working on genetic variation underlying behavioral flexibility.

In 2018, Isabel started as a Research Professor at KU Leuven, where she leads the Neural Signaling and Circuit Plasticity group. Her research focuses on the organizing principles of neuropeptide signaling in neural circuits and behavior in C. elegans. Her work has identified neuropeptidergic systems that are fundamental to learning and shared across animal species. Her team uses large-scale pharmacological approaches to map peptide-receptor interactions and develops neuropeptide sensors to visualize receptor activation in vivo. They are combining these tools with circuit and behavioral analysis to understand the organization, spatiotemporal dynamics and plasticity of the neuropeptide signaling network in behavior.

For her research, Isabel has been awarded the Baillet Latour Biomedical Award in Neuroscience and has received an ERC Starting and Consolidator Grant.