It was time again for our annual RTG2416 Fall retreat.

This year, we were able to enjoy our stay at the beautiful Seehotel Maria Laach. Located on the grounds of the Benedictine abbey founded in 1093, on the shores of Lake Laach, the hotel provided us with the ideal setting for an intensive and fruitful exchange.
The program was diversely structured and offered plenty of space for scientific exchange in particular. The PhD students had the opportunity to present their scientific work in various formats, e.g. in the form of short flash talks or during poster sessions. For the new PhD students of the third cohort in particular, the meeting was a good opportunity to get to become better acquainted with all those involved in RTG2416 MultiSenses-MultiScales.
The scientific part was rounded off by our two outstanding keynote speakers. On the first day, Prof. Dr. Markus Kipp gave us an insight into the physiology and pathology of the axon-oligodendrocyte-myelin unit, which he is researching at the Department of Anatomy at the University of Rostock.

On the second day of the retreat, Prof. Dr. Veronica Egger from the Faculty of Biology and Preclinical Medicine at the University of Regensburg gave us a detailed overview of her research work on the processing of olfactory stimuli within the olfactory bulb, both at the level of individual synapses and in neuronal networks.

Of course, cultural education was not neglected in such a historic location. We were given a detailed tour of the Benedictine monastery and the abbey church, a three-nave, double-choir pillar basilica in the tradition of the cathedrals of Speyer, Mainz, and Worms. In addition, some participants attempted to tap into the spiritual power of the monastery complex and took part in the Benedictine monks’ morning prayer. Whether the attempt to escape the purely scientific observation of neural networks, at least for a short time, was successful is left to each individual to decide.
All in all, the RTG2416 Fall Retreat 2024 was once again a great success, with intensive discussions and exchanges, prospects for possible collaborations, and an overall coming together of the entire research network.

Now we are looking forward to the upcoming festive days and wish you a peaceful Christmas season.