BIG LAB NEWS: The Janovjak Group is moving to Flinders University!

The Janovjak Group is moving in early 2022!

As of January 2022, Harald is a Matthew Flinders Full Professor at Flinders University in the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI)!

You can find Harald’s updated staff profile [here] and his updated research profile [here].

Check back here for lots of exciting updates from our new home in a few months time!

NEWS: What a LOVely collaboration!

Our most recent collaborative paper with our good friends from the Andreas Möglich lab at the University of Bayreuth is now online [LINK]!

This study not only reveals a surprising temperature-sensitivity in a LOV photoreceptor, which markedly impacts structure and function, but also demonstrates how this sensitivity can be tuned using rational protein design!

Thank you everyone involved and especially Julia and Andreas for their leadership!

NEWS: Paper on optogenetic rescue of Parkinson’s in an animal model – congrats, Álvaro!

Our former post-doc Álvaro was leading the project on investigating the potential of a light-activated RTK, Opto-Ret, as an intervention option for the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson’s.

The study, published in PLoS Genetics [LINK], shows how Opto-Ret successfully alleviates disease hallmarks in a Drosophila model of the disease.

To our best knowledge this is the first demonstration of optogenetic delivery of pro-survival signals in any in vivo scenario of tissue degeneration.

This work was a fantastic collaboration with the groups of Konstanze Winklhofer at RUB Bochum, Peter Soba at ZMNH Hamburg and Daria Siekhaus at IST Austria.

Congratulations to everyone involved, and especially Álvaro, as well as Nikolas and Sam!

You can read more about the story here:

NEWS: Collaborative paper on GPCR dimerization!

Our newest paper from our collaboration with Leo Lee’s lab at the University of Macau is out now!

This study demonstrates how one receptor in a GPCR heterodimer inhibits its binding partner through an intracellular retention mechanism, a novel and striking consequence of GPCR dimerization!

You can access the article here!

Congratulations to our friends in Macau!

NEWS: The 2nd Optogenetics Australia Virtual Workshop was a full success!

That’s a wrap! February 16-19, 2021, saw the second edition of the Optogenetics Australia Workshop, this time virtually, and it was a great success! Some impressions can be found HERE.

Spanning over 4 days, the workshop included talks and workshops by experts from all over the world, as well as fantastic presentations by ECRs showcasing their research. You can have a look at the program HERE.

Not just the line-up was international: more than 120 participants registered for the workshop and “zoomed-in” from Asia, North America, Europe and Australia.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you again at next year’s workshop, you can follow us on Twitter to receive the latest updates. If you are interested in joining next year’s organising committee, please contact as by e-mail.

A huge thank you again to everyone who was involved and made the 2nd Optogenetics Australia Workshop so successful!