Inhibitory Neuron Development Lab

Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence

Florian Neuhaus joined the Mayerlab as a Ph.D. student in 2024. He uses both experimental and computational approaches to investigate gene-regulatory mechanisms underlying the differentiation and maturation of GABAergic neurons during development. He holds B.Sc. degrees in Biology and Bioinformatics from LMU Munich, and an M.Sc. in Bioinformatics from LMU and TUM.

Dr. Ann Bright completed her Ph.D. at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences under the supervision of Prof. Gert Jan C. Veenstra, where she investigated the role of epigenetic regulation in cell identity and lineage commitment during early embryonic development. Following her Master’s focus on genomics, she developed a strong interest in gene regulation in development. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Mayerlab, she studies the molecular mechanisms that control interneuron development, diversity, and function.

Dr. Elena Dvoretskova received her undergraduate degree in Physiology from Lomonosov University in Moscow, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Genoa, and completed postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Prof. Bernardo Rudy at the NYU Neuroscience Institute. At the Mayerlab, she develops reporter assays and applies perturbation sequencing to investigate how transcription factors and their cofactors—particularly those implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders—interact with regulatory DNA elements to control lineage-specific gene expression during neuronal differentiation.

Connor Lynch joined the Mayerlab in 2023 as part of his M.Sc. studies at the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN), University of Munich. He uses single-cell approaches to investigate how interneurons acquire specialized identities and cortical connectivity. He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry with honors from the University of Chicago (2016) and previously worked in healthcare and biotech consulting, including roles as Manager of Strategy & Analytics at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and Senior Consultant at Blueprint Research Group (now Trinity Life Sciences) in Chicago.

Avani received her Master’s degree in Biotechnology from Northeastern University in Boston, where she developed a strong foundation in molecular and cellular biology. Prior to joining the Mayer Lab, she worked at Intellia Therapeutics as a Senior Research Associate, where she contributed to AAV-CRISPR-based gene therapies for retinal diseases. She also gained experience at Editas Medicine, supporting the development of targeted genetic technologies. In the Mayer Lab, Avani assists in developing molecular and cell-based assays and contributes to research exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying brain development and function.

Christian Mayer is a Max Planck Research Group Leader at the MPI for Biological Intelligence in the Munich area (since 2018), EMBO Young Investigator, and faculty member at the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences and the International Max Planck Research School. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (2007–2011) and holds a Diplom in Biology from the University of Konstanz. He conducted postdoctoral research with Gord Fishell at NYU Neuroscience Institute (2012–2017) and the Broad Institute/Stanley Center (2017–2018), and was affiliated with the New York Genome Center (2015–2018).