Dr Itia Favre-Bulle
ARC DECRA Research Fellow
Queensland Brain Institute
+61 7 336 53411
Researcher biography
Itia is an optical physicist and neuroscientist recently awarded an ARC DECRA fellowship. She is based at the Queensland Brain Institute in Brisbane. Her research focuses on studying the zebrafish brain using advanced techniques such as whole brain calcium imaging and specialized light shaping devices. Notably, she has pioneered the application of optical tweezers to simulate the zebrafish inner-ear's responses to acceleration and hearing, offering novel insights into sensory processing mechanisms. She has also engineered imaging systems for conducting optogenetic experiments with real-time feedback in zebrafish models. Beyond technique development, Itia explores the noradrenergic system in zebrafish, investigating its pivotal role in modulating sensory functions. Her interdisciplinary approach combines optical physics with neuroscience to advance our understanding of neural circuits and sensory perception mechanisms in zebrafish.
Book
Favre‐Bulle, Itia Amandine (2018). Imaging, manipulation and optogenetics in zebrafish. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-96250-4
Journal Articles
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Preece, Daryl, Nieminen, Timo A., Heap, Lucy A., Scott, Ethan K. and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2025). Correction to: Scattering of Sculpted Light in Intact Brain Tissue, with implications for Optogenetics (Scientific Reports, (2015), 5, 1, (11501), 10.1038/srep11501). Scientific Reports, 15 (1) 8866. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-92455-1
Wilde, Maya, Poulsen, Rebecca E., Qin, Wei, Arnold, Joshua, Favre‐Bulle, Itia A., Mattingley, Jason B., Scott, Ethan K. and Stednitz, Sarah J. (2025). Evidence for Auditory Stimulus‐Specific Adaptation But Not Deviance Detection in Larval Zebrafish Brains. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 533 (4) e70046, 4. doi: 10.1002/cne.70046
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Muller, Eli, Lee, Conrad, Scholz, Leandro A., Arnold, Joshua, Munn, Brandon, Wainstein, Gabriel, Shine, James M. and Scott, Ethan K. (2025). Brain-wide impacts of sedation on spontaneous activity and auditory processing in larval zebrafish. The Journal of Neuroscience, 45 (15) e0204242025, e0204242025. doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.0204-24.2025
Watson, Mark, Stilgoe, Alexander, Favre-Bulle, Itia and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2025). Interrogating the Ballistic Regime in Liquids with Rotational Optical Tweezers. Optica, 12 (2), 246-254. doi: 10.1364/optica.549215
Munn, Brandon R., Müller, Eli J., Favre-Bulle, Itia, Scott, Ethan, Lizier, Joseph T., Breakspear, Michael and Shine, James M. (2024). Multiscale organization of neuronal activity unifies scale-dependent theories of brain function. Cell, 187 (25), 7303-7313.e15. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.10.004
Stilgoe, Alexander B., Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Watson, Mark L., Gomez-Godinez, Veronica, Berns, Michael W., Preece, Daryl and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2024). Shining light in mechanobiology: optical tweezers, scissors, and beyond. ACS Photonics, 11 (3), 917-940. doi: 10.1021/acsphotonics.4c00064
Favre-Bulle, Itia A. and Scott, Ethan K. (2022). Optical tweezers across scales in cell biology. Trends in Cell Biology, 32 (11), 932-946. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2022.05.001
Marquez-Legorreta, Emmanuel, Constantin, Lena, Piber, Marielle, Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Taylor, Michael A., Blevins, Ann S., Giacomotto, Jean, Bassett, Dani S., Vanwalleghem, Gilles C. and Scott, Ethan K. (2022). Brain-wide visual habituation networks in wild type and fmr1 zebrafish. Nature Communications, 13 (1) 895. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28299-4
Mancienne, Tessa, Marquez-Legorreta, Emmanuel, Wilde, Maya, Piber, Marielle, Favre-Bulle, Itia, Vanwalleghem, Gilles and Scott, Ethan K. (2021). Contributions of luminance and motion to visual escape and habituation in larval zebrafish. Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 15 748535, 748535. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2021.748535
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Taylor, Michael A., Marquez-Legorreta, Emmanuel, Vanwalleghem, Gilles, Poulsen, Rebecca E., Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina and Scott, Ethan K. (2020). Sound generation in zebrafish with bio-opto-acoustics. Nature Communications, 11 (1) 6120, 6120. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19982-5
Constantin, Lena, Poulsen, Rebecca E., Scholz, Leandro A., Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Taylor, Michael A., Sun, Biao, Goodhill, Geoffrey J., Vanwalleghem, Gilles C. and Scott, Ethan K. (2020). Altered brain-wide auditory networks in a zebrafish model of fragile X syndrome. BMC Biology, 18 (1) 125, 125. doi: 10.1186/s12915-020-00857-6
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Stilgoe, Alexander B., Scott, Ethan K. and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2019). Optical trapping in vivo: theory, practice, and applications. Nanophotonics, 8 (6), 1023-1040. doi: 10.1515/nanoph-2019-0055
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Vanwalleghem, Gilles, Taylor, Michael A., Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina and Scott, Ethan K. (2018). Cellular-resolution imaging of vestibular processing across the larval zebrafish brain. Current Biology, 28 (23), 3711-3722. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.09.060
Taylor, Michael A., Vanwalleghem, Gilles C., Favre-Bulle, Itia A and Scott, Ethan K. (2018). Diffuse light-sheet microscopy for stripe-free calcium imaging of neural populations. Journal of Biophotonics, 11 (12) e201800088, e201800088. doi: 10.1002/jbio.201800088
Heap, Lucy A. L., Vanwalleghem, Gilles, Thompson, Andrew W., Favre-Bulle, Itia A. and Scott, Ethan K. (2018). Luminance changes drive directional startle through a thalamic pathway. Neuron, 99 (2), 293-301.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.06.013
Favre-Bulle, I. A., Zhang, S., Kashchuk, A. V., Lenton, I. C.D., Gibson, L. J., Stilgoe, A. B., Nieminen, T. A. and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, H. (2018). Optical tweezers bring micromachines to biology. Optics and Photonics News, 29 (4), 40-47. doi: 10.1364/opn.29.4.000040
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Stilgoe, Alexander B., Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina and Scott, Ethan K. (2017). Optical trapping of otoliths drives vestibular behaviours in larval zebrafish. Nature Communications, 8 (1) 630, 630. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00713-2
Zhang, Shu, Gibson, Lachlan J., Stilgoe, Alexander B., Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Nieminen, Timo A. and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2017). Erratum: Ultrasensitive rotating photonic probes for complex biological systems (vol 4, pg 1103, 2017). Optica, 4 (11), 1372-1372. doi: 10.1364/OPTICA.4.001372
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Preece, Daryl, Nieminen, Timo A., Heap, Lucy A., Scott, Ethan K. and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2015). Scattering of sculpted light in intact brain tissue, with implications for optogenetics. Scientific Reports, 5 (1) 11501, 1-9. doi: 10.1038/srep11501
Conference Papers
Watson, Mark L., Stilgoe, Alexander B., Favre-Bulle, Itia A. and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2024). High-bandwidth rotational optical tweezers for ultrafast and calibration-free viscometry in fluids. SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering, San Diego, CA United States, 18-23 August 2024. Bellingham, WA United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.3028345
Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina, Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Watson, Mark L., Grant, Patrick, Nieminen, Timo A. and Stilgoe, Alexander B. (2024). Sculpted light and all optically driven micro and nanomachines. SPIE Organic Photonics + Electronics, San Diego, CA United States, 18-23 August 2024. Bellingham, WA United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.3030461
Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina, Watson, Mark L., Favre-Bulle, Itia, Grant, Patrick, Nieminen, Timo A. and Stilgoe, Alexander B. (2023). Optical tweezers in mechanobiology. Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XX: SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering, San Diego, CA United States, 20-25 August 2023. Bellingham, WA United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2682972
Watson, Mark L., Stilgoe, Alexander B., Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Nieminen, Timo A. and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2023). Sensing inertia with rotational optical tweezers. SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering, San Diego, CA United States, 20-25 August 2023. Bellingham, WA United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2677236
Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina, Armstrong, Declan, Watson, Mark, Favre-Bulle, Itia, Nieminen, Timo and Stilgoe, Alexander B. (2022). Optically driven nano and micromachines in optical tweezers. SPIE Organic Photonics + Electronics, San Diego, CA United States, 21-26 August 2022. Bellingham, WA United States: SPIE. doi: 10.1117/12.2639995
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Scott, Ethan and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2016). Optical manipulation for optogenetics: otoliths manipulation in zebrafish. Conference on Biophysics, Biology, and Biophotonics - The Crossroads, San Francisco, CA, United States, 13-14 February 2016. Bellingham, WA, United States: S P I E - International Society for Optical Engineering. doi: 10.1117/12.2216554
Favre-Bulle, Itia, Nieminen, Timo A., Preece, Daryl, Heap, Lucy A., Scott, Ethan K. and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2015). Computational modeling of scattering of a focused beam in zebrafish brain tissue. Optics and the Brain, BRAIN 2015, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 12-15 April 2015. Washington, DC, USA: OSA - The Optical Society. doi: 10.1364/BODA.2015.JT3A.34
Vanwalleghem, Gilles, Heap, Lucy A., Favre-Bulle, Itia, Schuster, Kevin, Thompson, Andrew and Scott, Ethan K. (2015). Sensory integration in the Zebrafish brain, what are the functions of the thalamus and the cerebellum ?. Neuroinformatics 2015, Cairns, Australia, 20-22 August, 2015. Lausanne Switzerland: Frontiers. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2015.91.00018
Favre-Bulle, Itia, Preece, Daryl, Nieminen, Timo A., Heckenberg, Norman and Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Halina (2011). High-speed camera system for biological applications in optical tweezing. International Quantum Electronics Conference, IQEC 2011 and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, CLEO Pacific Rim 2011, Sydney, NSW Australia, 28 August - 1 September 2011. Piscataway, NJ United States: I E E E. doi: 10.1109/IQEC-CLEO.2011.6194030
Data Collection
Favre-Bulle, Itia and Scott, Ethan (2020). Bio-Opto-Acoustics. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/9809ff7