de Bono Group
Genes, Circuits, and Behavior
Neurons are highly specialized cells and many fundamental questions about their organization, function, and plasticity remain unaddressed. The de Bono group seeks to discover and then dissect basic molecular mechanisms that underpin the functions of neurons and neural circuits.
The group initiates many of their studies in the roundworm C. elegans. This animal’s relative simplicity provides special opportunities to understand behavior in cellular and molecular terms. The worm’s rich behavioral repertoire provides readouts of neuron and circuit functions. Each of its neurons can be identified and visualized in vivo, and selectively manipulated using transgenes. Neural activity can be monitored in behaving animals using genetically encoded sensors. Powerful genetics and advanced genomic resources make high-throughput forward genetics and single-neuron profiling possible. Genetics is complemented by biochemistry and in vivo microscopy, to get at molecular mechanisms that are usually conserved from worm to human. The group aims to take discoveries made in the worm into mammalian models.
Group Leader
Administrative Support
Team
Current Projects
How to switch between global animal states | In vivo biochemistry at single-cell resolution | Neuroimmune signaling | Gap junctions structure and function | Evolution of behavior
Publications
Artan M, Hartl M, Chen W, de Bono M. 2022. Depletion of endogenously biotinylated carboxylases enhances the sensitivity of TurboID-mediated proximity labeling in Caenorhabditis elegans. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 298(9), 102343. View
Zhao L, Fenk LA, Nilsson L, Amin-Wetzel NP, Ramirez N, de Bono M, Chen C. 2022. ROS and cGMP signaling modulate persistent escape from hypoxia in Caenorhabditis elegans. PLoS Biology. 20(6), e3001684. View
Artan M, de Bono M. 2022.Proteomic Analysis of C. Elegans Neurons Using TurboID-Based Proximity Labeling. In: Behavioral Neurogenetics. Neuromethods, vol. 181, 277–294. View
Valperga G, de Bono M. 2022. Impairing one sensory modality enhances another by reconfiguring peptidergic signalling in Caenorhabditis elegans. eLife. 11, e68040. View
Chauve L, Hodge F, Murdoch S, Masoudzadeh F, Mann H-J, Lopez-Clavijo A, Okkenhaug H, West G, Sousa BC, Segonds-Pichon A, Li C, Wingett S, Kienberger H, Kleigrewe K, de Bono M, Wakelam M, Casanueva O. 2021. Neuronal HSF-1 coordinates the propagation of fat desaturation across tissues to enable adaptation to high temperatures in C. elegans, Zenodo, 10.5281/ZENODO.5519410. View
ReX-Link: Mario de Bono
Career
2019 Professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
2004–2019 Tenured Group Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
1999–2004 Tenure-track Group Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
1997–1999 Research Associate Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCSF, San Francisco, USA
1995–1997 Wellcome Trust Travelling Prize Fellow, UCSF, San Francisco, USA
1995 PhD, University of Cambridge, UK
Selected Distinctions
2018 Wellcome Investigator Award
2011 Advanced Grant ERC
2014 Honorary Appointment, Garvan Medical Institute, Australia
2011 CoEN Award (Centre of Excellence in Neurodegeneration)
2006 Human Frontiers Science Program Organization grant
2007 Elected to EMBO
2005 The Balfour Lecture, The Genetics Society, UK
2004 Max Perutz Prize, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
1995 Wellcome Trust Prize Fellowship
1990 Wellcome Trust Prize Studentship
1990 Research Studentship, Trinity College, University of Cambridge
