معرفی
Maarten Zwart is a Reader in Neuroscience at the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom. He leads an active research lab focused on understanding how the brain produces behavior, particularly through the study of motor control and locomotion in model organisms such as zebrafish, Drosophila, and Tribolium larvae. He is accepting postgraduate research students and has secured funding from major institutions including the BBSRC, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, and The Wellcome Trust.
His research integrates imaging, electrophysiology, connectomics, and custom-built microscopy to explore neural circuits and sensorimotor integration. His lab emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration, welcoming researchers from neuroscience, engineering, physics, and computer science backgrounds.
His recent publications span topics such as metachronal wave coordination in Drosophila, deep learning tools for behavior analysis (PoseR), and neural mechanisms of self-localization. His work frequently appears in high-impact journals like Cell, eLife, and Nature Communications, reflecting a strong trajectory in systems and behavioral neuroscience.
Research trends indicate a focus on circuit-level analysis of locomotion, neural plasticity, and the development of open-source tools for behavioral quantification. His work bridges molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience with computational approaches.
He mentors a diverse team of students and researchers, including PhD candidates and postdoctoral associates, and has contributed to collaborative projects involving connectomics and neural imaging. His lab is also involved in public engagement and open science through shared datasets and software tools.
Grants and Projects:
- Motor control in the Drosophila larva (BBSRC, 2022–2026)
- Ultrafast imaging of neural control of movements (Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2021–2022)
- ISSF Equipment and Studentship grants (Wellcome Trust, 2019–2023)
- Co-investigator on BBSRC iCASE PhD studentship
Notable Datasets and Tools:
- Creator of datasets on larval behavior in Tribolium and zebrafish
- Contributor to CATMAID, a collaborative annotation toolkit for connectomics
- Co-developer of PoseR, a deep learning toolbox for animal pose estimation
