Integrated Calendar

Energy transfer through the Förster mechanism, often referred to as FRET, depends critically on the overlap between the emission of the donor chromophore and the absorption of the acceptor chromophore. When photochromic molecules (molecular photoswitches) are isomerized between the two forms, the absorption spectra typically experience dramatic changes. Also, some photoswitches display emission exclusively in one isomeric form. This opens up the possibility to switch the capacity to act as both donor- and acceptor units, and hence, also to control energy transfer processes with concomitant changes in the fluorescence pattern.
In addition to the abovementioned spectral features, the rate of the FRET process is highly dependent on the distance between the donor and the acceptor. This parameter can also be varied using molecular photoswitches, in the making/breaking of supramolecular complexes, which in turn dramatically changes the donor-acceptor distance and the FRET efficiencies.
In this presentation, I will give examples of how the both these approaches can be used to tune the emissive properties of photochromic constructs. From trivial fluorescence “on-off” switching, via directional switching, to systems displaying full-color reproduction.

Individual differences are an essential property of all living things, and personality provides a unique glimpse into the biology underlying behavioral variability. And yet, because of the lack of a systematic approach to personality, most works on animal personalities still end up examining a limited subset of subjectively chosen behavioral readouts. Lately, we have shown how personality can be inferred directly and objectively from high-dimensional natural behavioral space. While this approach is not species-specific, we have demonstrated it on mice as it is one of the most common model animals. The mice were videoed over several days, and their behavior automatically analyzed in depth. Altogether, the computer identified 60 separate behaviors such as approaching others, chasing or fleeing, sharing food or keeping others away from food, exploring, or hiding. We found the mice personalities by working backward from behavior and extracting the underlying traits that differ among individuals while being stable over time and across contexts. We validated that traits found this way (which we term identity domains) were stable across social context, do not change with age, explain the variability in performance in classical tests, and significantly correlates with gene expression in brain regions related to personality. Expanding this method to human behavior, by using location and physiological data from cellphones and smartwatches, revealed a highly structured personality space which resembles that of the mice. This method allows for better informed mechanistic investigations into the biology of individual differences, systematically comparing behaviors across species, as well as develop more personalized psychiatry. Recently we have also been employing this approach to subjectively quantify wellness and welfare in both people and animals, towards the biology of happiness.