Professor Jan Fürst-Ache

Academic Background:

I am an Associate Professor of Animal Behaviour in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford. Before joining Oxford, I was an Emmy Noether Group Leader and a NeuroNex Principal Investigator at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus in the United States. I received my PhD in Neuroscience from Bielefeld University and my master’s degree in Neuroscience and bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Cologne.

Research:

Animals, including humans, constantly encounter a wealth of sensory information. The brain must integrate this information with current needs and goals to select appropriate actions—often in a split second. I investigate how this occurs at the level of individual neurons and circuits in behaving animals. I approach this question from two angles: I work on sensorimotor circuits, which transform sensory information into action, and modulatory systems, which adjust these circuits according to an animal’s current needs. My lab primarily uses the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a model system. Its powerful genetic toolkit, complete maps of neuronal connections, and the ability to record from neurons during behaviour allow us to investigate how circuit structure and dynamics give rise to behaviour. We focus on circuits controlling fundamental behaviours such as walking, feeding, and flight. The neural control of these behaviours relies on principles shared across animals. Our work on modulatory systems focuses on insulin, dopamine, and octopamine, which regulate energy balance, movement and motivation, and arousal, respectively. Because these functions are conserved across species, studying these systems can reveal general principles of how internal states shape brain activity to enable flexible behaviour.

More at www.ache-lab.com

Selected Publications:

Liessem S, Dahlhoff S, Iqbal FM, Palacios-Muñoz A, Cascino-Milani F, Volk H, Erginkaya M, Diniz AM, Gorostiza EA, Büschges A, Clemens J, and Ache JM (2026). “Control of walking direction by descending and dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila.” Current Biology 36(15): 3808-3822.e6.

Dallmann CJ, Iqbal FM, Liebscher S, Erginkaya M, Liessem S, Sauer EL, Soyka H, Cascino-Milani F, Goldammer J, Ito K, and Ache JM (2026). “A dedicated brain circuit controls forward walking in Drosophila.” bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2026.01.04.697356.

Liessem S, Asinof SK, Nern A, Sumathipala M, Rogers E, Erginkaya M, Dallmann CJ, Card GM, and Ache JM (2025). “Parallel neuronal ensembles control behavior across sensorimotor levels in Drosophila.” bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2025.12.13.693955.

Büschges A and Ache JM (2025). “Motor control on the move: from insights in insects to general mechanisms.” Physiological Reviews 105(3): 975-1031.

Held M, Bisen RS, Zandawala M, Chockley AS, Balles IS, Hilpert S, Liessem S, Cascino-Milani F, and Ache JM (2025). “Aminergic and peptidergic modulation of insulin-producing cells in Drosophila.” eLife 13: RP99548.

Liessem S, Held M, Bisen RS, Haberkern H, Lacin H, Bockemühl T, and Ache JM (2023). “Behavioral state-dependent modulation of insulin-producing cells in Drosophila.” Current Biology 33(3): 449-463.e5.

Ache JM, Namiki S, Lee A, Branson K, and Card GM (2019). “State-dependent decoupling of sensory and motor circuits underlies behavioral flexibility in Drosophila.” Nature Neuroscience 22(7): 1132-1139.