Dr. Daria Peleg-Raibstein

Research area

Dr. Daria Peleg-Raibstein received a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from ETH Zurich. She holds a permanent scientific appointment at ETH Zurich, where she is a Principal Investigator and the Deputy Director of the Neurobehavioural Dynamics Lab https://neurodynamics.ethz.ch/the-group.html. Her research has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, Novartis as well as by the ETH. Daria is interested in brain mechanisms of motivation, reward, and cognition.

Daria was awarded an SNF Marie Heim-Vögtlin grant from 2013-2015. She currently directs a project (funded by an SNF grant) which probes how nutrition predisposes subcortical neural circuitry towards supporting aberrant behaviors such as overeating, addiction, and psychosis. In addition, the ability of dietary components to impair cognitive function throughout the lifespan, with a specific emphasis on learning and memory functions Her research combines classic experimental psychology and neuropharmacology with new technologies for cell-type-specific observation and control of neural circuits (optogenetics, in vivo calcium imaging, chemogenetics).

Key publications

Guillaumin, M. C. C., Viskaitis, P., Bracey, E., Burdakov, D., Peleg-Raibstein, D. Disentangling the role of NAc D1 and D2 cells in hedonic eating. Molecular psychiatry, 2023.

Peleg-Raibstein D. Understanding the Link Between Maternal Overnutrition, Cardio-Metabolic Dysfunction and Cognitive Aging. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 2021 Feb 26;15(189).

Concetti C, Bracey EF, Peleg-Raibstein D, Burdakov D. Control of fear extinction by hypothalamic melanin-concentrating hormone–expressing neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Sep 8; 117(36): 22514–22521.

Burdakov D, Peleg-Raibstein D. The hypothalamus as a primary coordinator of memory updating. Physiol Behav. 2020 Sep 1; 223:112988.

Sarker G, Litwan K, Kastli R, Peleg-Raibstein D. Maternal overnutrition during critical developmental periods leads to different health adversities in the offspring: relevance of obesity, addiction and schizophrenia. Sci Rep. 2019 Nov 21;9(1):17322.

Wolfrum C, Peleg-Raibstein D. Maternal overnutrition leads to cognitive and neurochemical abnormalities in C57BL/6 mice. Nutr Neurosci. 2019 Oct;22(10):688-699.

Sarker G, Sun W, Rosenkranz D, Pelczar P, Opitz L, Efthymiou V, Wolfrum C, Peleg-Raibstein D. Maternal overnutrition programs hedonic and metabolic phenotypes across generations through sperm tsRNAs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 May 21;116(21):10547-10556.

Sarker G, Berrens R, von Arx J, Pelczar P, Reik W, Wolfrum C, Peleg-Raibstein D. Transgenerational transmission of hedonic behaviors and metabolic phenotypes induced by maternal overnutrition. Transl Psychiatry. 2018 Oct 12;8(1):195. 

Awards and Fellowships

2023-2027 Swiss National Science Foundation Research Grant

2021-2022 Novartis Foundation

2021-2024 ETH Research Grant

2020-2024 Swiss National Science Foundation Research Grant

2014-2017 ETH Research Grant

2014 ETH Equipment Grant

2013-2015 Swiss National Science Foundation Marie Heim-Vögtlin (MHV) Grant

2010 ECNP Research Grant for Young Scientists