FWF stand-alone grant for Daniela Pollak

With the stand-alone grant from the FWF, Daniela Pollak will study how the activation of the immune system during pregnancy impacts the female brain and influences maternal behavior in mice. Her research will focus on understanding how immune responses alters brain circuits and the molecular pathways that control maternal care. Using advanced genetic approaches, she will monitor brain activity in response to immune activation during pregnancy. Pollak will also use single-cell analysis to understand the molecular changes at play at the individual cell level. The project aims to show how immune activation during pregnancy affects the brain’s ability to prepare for parenting, with potential insights into how infections, including COVID-19, could impact long-term maternal behaviour.

About Daniela Pollak

Daniela Pollak earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree at the Veterinary University of Vienna and her PhD at the Medical University of Vienna. She conducted her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Eric Kandel at Columbia University in New York, where she studied the neural basis of behaviour. Upon returning to Vienna, Pollak joined the Medical University of Vienna, where she is now a Professor of Behavioral Biology. In 2023, she became head of comparative medicine of IMBA and IMP and an adjunct group leader at IMBA and the IMP. Her research focuses on studying the neural circuits, cellular mechanisms, and molecular processes that govern social and emotional behaviours in both health and disease.

About FWF funding

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is Austria's central funding organisation for basic research. FWF stand-alone grants are allocated to fund individual research in the area of non-profit oriented basic research. They are assigned solely based on their high quality, assessed by international referees on a competitive basis. The current approval rate for stand-alone projects is 26.6 percent.