Silvia Arber - Biography#

Silvia Arber holds a joint appointment as a full Professor at the Biozentrum, University of Basel and is a senior investigator at the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) in Basel, Switzerland. Silvia Arber obtained her PhD in the research group of Pico Caroni at the FMI in 1996. She subsequently moved to the laboratory of Thomas Jessell at Columbia University in New York for her postdoctoral work from 1996-2000 where she worked on the role of transcription factors in neuronal differentiation in the spinal cord. In her own laboratory, she aims to identify the principles that allow neuronal circuits to orchestrate accurate and timely control of motor behavior in response to a variety of stimuli such as sensory cues or voluntary initiation of movement, using the mouse as a model system. To decipher how motor circuits engage in the control of movement, her laboratory elucidates the organization and function of neuronal circuits, by studying synaptic connectivity, genetic and molecular identity of neuronal subpopulations as well as functional properties.

Silvia Arber received numerous awards, including the Pfizer award, the HFSP 10th anniversary award, the Latsis award and Schellenberg award for research on spinal cord development, plasticity and regeneration as well as the Otto Naegeli Prize for Medical Research.