Stay tuned for lots of exciting updates on this website!

You may have noticed that not all information shown here is quite up-to-date!

Our website update is in progress and how long can it take, really…

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!

It was a true pleasure to put a perspetive on optogenetic neuroregeneration together with none other than the fantastic Sonja Kleinlogel.

You can access the perspective here [LINK].

And also consider visiting the website of Sonja’s research group here [LINK].

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!

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:

• EMBL Australia
• ARMI/Monash University

Jackson is joining us for his Masters in Biotechnology research project!

It’s great to have you in the lab!

All the best for the upcoming year!

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!

Keith and Yolana are joining us this year as our lab’s most recent Honours students!

It’s great to have you join the team, and we wish you the best for the upcoming year!

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!

The second Optogenetics Australia Workshop will be taking place virtually from February 16th-19th!

Our program includes both talks and workshops held by national and international speakers, as well as a great selection of ECR and short talks.

You can find the full program HERE.

We are looking forward to welcoming many of you there!