Jeff W. Lichtman

Jeff William Lichtman (born 1951) is an American neuroscientist.

Education and career Lichtman was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1951. He grew up in the Northeastern United States. Lichtman is a faculty member within the Harvard Center for Brain Science and the Conte Center at Harvard University. From 2013 to 2016, he was a Grass Foundation Trustee.

Research Up to ~160 colours were observed in the first Brainbow mice. (a) A motor nerve innervating ear muscle. (b) An axon tract in the brainstem. c) The dentate gyrus. From Lichtman and Sanes, 2008. The Lichtman lab studies activity-dependent plasticity in motor and autonomic circuits of living animals. Lichtman hypothesizes that axons undergo synaptic pruning and strengthening in response to experiences, and these experiences cause neurons which co-innervate the same cell to compete for dominance, thereby driving synaptic plasticity. The lab uses genetically modified mice and automated imaging tools to identify neural circuit motifs throughout the nervous system.

Additionally, the Lichtman lab developed a device called the Automatic Tape-Collecting Lathe Ultramicrotome (ATLUM), which can be used for automated electron microscopy in neural circuit reconstruction. Data from the Lichtman lab has been used in the citizen science game EyeWire, developed in collaboration with Sebastian Seung and Winfried Denk, to construct a full connectome of the mouse retina.

The lab is also interested in inhibitory interneurons in the prefrontal cortex, which are thought to be selectively vulnerable in mental disorders such as autism or schizophrenia. Transformative Research R01 Award, National Institutes of Health (2011)

Selected publications