Giulia Manoli

Title: Seasonal clock in D. ezoana 

Host Institution: Wuerzburg University
Supervisor: Prof Charlotte Helfrich-Foerster
Contact: TBA
Start date: TBA
Secondment: University of Groningen to model internal/external coincidence and for CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis for 5 months.
Objectives: To discover the role played by the circadian clock in night-length measurement and induction of diapause in the northern European fruifly D. ezoana. The role and distribution of clock proteins and relevant clock-related neuropeptides will be studied under different photoperiodic and temperature conditions and mutagenesis (CRISPR/Cas9) of canonical clock genes will be used to examine whether clock genes measure night-length (which mediates diapause).

About me: I am 25 years old, born in Padova (Italy), a small city in the north of the country. There I grew interested in nature and science and eventually got my BSc in Biology. During my bachelor thesis I got curious about how the brain elaborates environmental information and how this can influence our behaviour, so I enrolled in Neuroscience MSc in Trieste, a beautiful city by the Mediterranean Sea. For my Master thesis I left Trieste and its beaches and moved to Würzburg where I studied the relationship between circadian rhythms and metabolism in Drosophila melanogaster. During my PhD I aim to improve my skills as a scientist investigating the diapause of Drosophila ezoana. Joining the CINCHRON network is for me a wonderful chance to deepen my knowledge on insect chronobiology and to get in touch with experts in this field.

In my free time I love reading, listening to music, travelling, taking photos and long walks in nature. Even if I have been studying German for six months I am still struggling with it, but I’m looking forward to practising it in the next years.