13th USIAS Fellows Seminar USIAS: Origin of animal magnetic sense

Hervé Cadiou, Fellow 2013, Institute of Cellular Integrative Neurosciences

Twice a year, many animal species perform long distance migrations, such as the Arctic tern, a 35 000 km trans pole journey in order to experience two summers annually. Researchers have observed that to perform those migrations, animal have the ability to detect the magnetic fields of the Earth and thus possess a magnetic sense. The mechanism that enable specific cells to transduce magnetic information to the brain is still not fully understood.

Hervé Cadiou is currently working on a project to develop new techniques using a combination of optical and cell sorting methods to isolate magnetite-containing cells from fish olfactory epithelium. During the seminar, Dr. Cadiou will present the progress of his work in the domain of the origin of animal magnetic sense.