SEMINAR SERIES 2022/21
Jason Rihel – University College London (05/05/2022)
Seminar place and time: Centre for Developmental Neurobiology seminar room, 4 pm
Title: The Pressure to Sleep: Physiological Drivers, Encoders, and Executing Circuits
Abstract: In John Keats’s poem, “To Sleep”, he exhorts Sleep to “turn the key deftly in the oiled wards”, allowing him a restful slumber. Although we have known that sleep pressure builds the longer we stay awake, neither the sleep pressure signals (the “key”) nor where in the brain (the “oiled wards”) these are sensed are well understood. In this talk, I will discuss our research programme using zebrafish to study sleep. I will present our progress in identifying some of the signals from our waking day that regulate subsequent sleep need, especially changes to neuronal activity and synapse formation. I will also present our more recent work aimed at identifying a sleep need encoder and the sleep circuits on which it acts. Finally, I will discuss how sleep circuits may interact with other sleep-regulatory signals, including those involved in metabolism and neurodegenerative diseases.
Host: Dominic Burrows
Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucbtjr3/
Dr Ann Clemens – University of Edinburgh (12/04/2022)
Seminar place and time: Centre for Developmental Neurobiology seminar room, 1 pm
Title: Neural Circuits of Kinship Behaviour
Abstract: Evolutionary theory and behavioural biology suggest that kinship is an organizing principle of social behavior. The neural mechanisms that mediate kinship behavior are, however, not known. Experiments confirm a sibling-approach preference in young rat pups and a sibling-avoidance-preference in older pups. Lesions of the lateral septum eliminate such kin preferences. In vivo juxta-cellular and whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in the lateral septum show multisensory neuronal responses to kin and non-kin stimuli. Non-kin odor-responsive neurons are located dorsally and kin-odor responsive neurons are located ventrally in the lateral septum. With development, the fraction of kin-responsive lateral septal neurons decrease and ongoing firing rates increase. Lesion effects, developmental changes and the ordered representation of response preferences according to kinship—an organization we refer to as nepotopy—point to a key role of the lateral septum in organizing mammalian kinship behaviour.
Host: Frederike Winkel
Website: https://kinshiplab.org/
Prof David Lyons – University of Edinburgh, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences (03/02/2022)
Webinar time: 1 pm
Title: Studying myelinated axon biology in vivo using zebrafish
Abstract: Myelinated axons are essential to nervous system formation, health and function. We use the zebrafish as a model organism to study myelinated axon biology, due to the suitability of zebrafish for detailed live imaging of cell behaviour, cell-cell interactions and neural circuit function in vivo over time, as well as their genetic conservation with mammals and experimental tractability, and their amenability for scalable drug screening, including in disease-relevant paradigms. In this presentation I will provide an overview of ongoing projects that are investigating the growth in diameter of axons prior to myelination and mechanisms of myelination, particularly those of activity-regulated myelination. In addition I will describe our work studying the consequences of demyelination in vivo and our efforts to use zebrafish to identify potential therapeutics of relevance to promoting remyelination and neuroprotection. Finally, I will speak to the integration of studies in zebrafish with those in complementary mammalian models and human-based platforms.
Host: Hannah Bruce
Website: https://www.lyons-lab.com/
SEMINAR SERIES 2020/21
Please note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic Neureka! Seminars will be held as a webinar hosted on zoom. All links to the webinar will be posted on this page.
Dr. Juliette Godin – Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC), Strasbourg (02/12/2021)
Webinar time: 4 pm
Title: Modifying tRNAs: a key process to regulate brain development?
Abstract: The cellular pool of transfer RNA (tRNA) is emerging as an unexpected key determinant of successful corticogenesis. Transfer RNAs are critical regulators of cell homeostasis in their role of adaptors in mRNA translation that need to be heavily modified to be fully functional. Interestingly, defects in tRNA expression or function are strongly linked to neuronal damage. Notably, 77% of human diseases associated with mutation in genes coding for enzymes involved in tRNA modifications are neurodevelopmental conditions. This strongly suggests that these highly evolutionary conserved tRNA editing enzymes might play an important role in regulating neurodevelopment. We hypothesize that tight regulation of tRNA modifications may be required for proper genesis, survival and/or migration of cortical neurons, and that defects in those modifications contribute to brain malformation. We approach these issues through the study of three tRNA modification complexes, the Elongator complex, the ADAT2/ADAT3 complex and the WDR4/METTL1 complex. Here, we will show how the loss of the Elongator complex and the lack of the anticodon wobble uridine (U34) modification (mcm5U34 and ncm5U34) in a subset of tRNAs impairs translational speed at specific codon, and ultimately triggers ER stress and leads, in mice, to premature neuron generation and microcephaly. We will further present initial findings demonstrating the physiological and pathological relevance of I34 (ADAT2/ADAT3) and m7G46 (WDR4/METTL1) tRNA modifications in neuronal migration. Together, these studies reinforce the importance of tRNAs editing for proper cortical development.
Host: Frederike Winkel
Website: https://www.igbmc.fr/en/recherche/teams/regulation-of-cortical-development-in-health-and-disease
Dr. Gabrielle Girardeau – Institut du Fer à Moulin (IFM), Paris (04/11/2021)
Webinar time: 1 pm
Title: Neural mechanisms for memory and emotional processing during sleep
Abstract: The hippocampus and the amygdala are two structures required for emotional memory. While the hippocampus encodes the contextual part of the memory, the amygdala processes its emotional valence. During Non-REM sleep, the hippocampus displays high frequency oscillations called “ripples”. Our early work shows that the suppression of ripples during sleep impairs performance on a spatial task, underlying their crucial role in memory consolidation. We more recently showed that the joint amygdala-hippocampus activity linked to aversive learning is reinstated during the following Non-REM sleep epochs, specifically during ripples. This mechanism potentially sustains the consolidation of aversive associative memories during Non REM sleep. On the other hand, REM sleep is associated with regular 8 Hz theta oscillations, and is believed to play a role in emotional processing. A crucial, initial step in understanding this role is to unravel sleep dynamics related to REM sleep in the hippocampus-amygdala network.
Host: Vincenzo Mastrolia
Website: https://girardeaulab.org/
Prof. Gerald Downes – University of Massachusetts Amherst (07/10/2021)
Webinar Time: 3 pm
Title: From swimming to seizures: Investigating locomotor behavior and epilepsy in developing zebrafish
Abstract: Neural networks in the vertebrate hindbrain and spinal cord rely upon a balance of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter systems to orchestrate locomotion. Classically inhibitory, GABAA receptors are recognized as robust regulators of these circuits. Although GABAA receptors are important to control locomotor behavior, the large number of receptor isoforms and homeostatic compensatory mechanisms have challenged efforts to determine isoform-selective roles. In developing zebrafish, gross pharmacological blockade of these receptors causes hyperactive swimming through mostly unknown cellular and molecular mechanisms. In this seminar, I will discuss our recent work to screen for GABAA receptor isoforms and the cell types through which they function to regulate larval zebrafish swimming behavior. Zebrafish hyperactive swimming has also been established as a model of seizures, so I will also briefly discuss zebrafish as an epilepsy model and our ongoing research in this area.
Host: Thomas Shallcross
Website: https://www.downeslab.org/
Prof. Kay Tye – Salk Institute for Biological Studies (02/09/2021)
Webinar Time: 4 pm
Title: Neural Representations of Social Homeostasis
Abstract: How does our brain rapidly determine if something is good or bad? How do we know our place within a social group? How do we know how to behave appropriately in dynamic environments with ever-changing conditions?
Host: Monika Moissidis
Website: https://tyelab.org/
Dr Farah Lubin, University of Alabama (01/04/2021)
Time: 4pm
Webinar ID: TBC
Title: TBA
Host: Hannah Bruce
Website: https://www.uab.edu/medicine/neurobiology/faculty/lubin
Prof. Paul Graham, University of Sussex (5/6/2021)
Time: 3 pm
Webinar ID: TBC
Title: TBA
Host: Thomas Sainsbury
Website: https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p91528-paul-graham
Dr Paola Arlotta, Harvard University (17/06/2021)
Time: 4pm
Webinar ID: TBC
Title: TBA
Host: Laia Torres Masjoan
Website: https://hsci.harvard.edu/people/paola-arlotta-phd
MORE SEMINARS TO BE ANNOUNCED PLEASE STAY TUNED!
PAST EVENTS
Prof. Gina Turrigiano, Brandeis University (29/01/2015)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, New Hunt’s House
Title: Self-tuning neurons and firing rate set-points in visual cortical circuits
Host: Paride Antinucci
Website: http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/turrigianolab/TurrigianoLabHome.html
Prof. Florian Engert, Harvard University (07/09/2015)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunt’s House
Title: Binocular motion processing in the larval zebrafish
Host: Winnie Wefelmeyer
Website: http://labs.mcb.harvard.edu/engert/
Dr. Tiago Branco, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge (06/10/2015)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Synaptic integration in circuits controlling mouse instinctive behaviours
Host: Chris Puhl
Website: http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/group-leaders/a-to-g/tiago-branco/
Dr. Adam Packer, University College London (05/11/2015)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, New Hunt’s House, King’s College London
Title: All-optical Interrogation of Neural Circuits
Host: Tom Sainsbury
Website: https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=APACK09/
Dr. Adam Kampff, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, University College London (10/12/2015)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunt’s House, Guy’s Campus
Title: What does (motor) Cortex do (in a rat)?
Host: Paride Antinucci
Website: http://www.kampff-lab.org/
Prof. David Nutt, Imperial College London (07/01/2016)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunt’s House, King’s College London
Title: The acid test? Using psychedelics to understand human brain function
Host: Alejandro Pan Vazquez
Website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/d.nutt
Prof. Thomas Euler, University of Tübingen (03/03/2016)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: What the mouse´s eye tells the mouse´s brain: Functional diversity in the retina
Host: Greta Schachermayer
Website: http://www.eye-tuebingen.de/eulerlab/
Prof. Kenneth Harris, University College London (24/03/2016)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunt’s House, King’s College London
Title: Organization of neuronal population activity in sensory cortex
Host: Andre Marques Smith
Website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/cortexlab
Prof. Melanie Woodin, University of Toronto (05/05/2016)
Time: 5pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: KCC2 Blurs the Lines between Excitatory and Inhibitory Synapses
Host: Winnie Wefelmeyer
Website: http://www.woodinlab.com/
Dr. Matthias Landgraf, University of Cambridge (09/06/2016)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Regulation of Structural Synaptic Plasticity by Metabolic Reactive Oxygen Species
Host: Sinziana Pop
Website: http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/directory/dr-matthias-landgraf
SPECIAL EVENTS 2016/17
Neuronal diversity – what is it for? Inaugural annual discussion-based event co-organised by NEUReka! (CDN) and SystSems (SWC and Gatsby) (21/03/2017)
Time: 2pm to 5pm, followed by food and drink
Venue: Ground floor Lecture Theatre, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, 25 Howland Street, London W1T 4JG
Click here for further details
Check out the photos from this event
SEMINAR SERIES 2016/17
Dr. David McLean, Northwestern University (08/09/2016)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Speed control in the zebrafish spinal cord
Host: Adna Dumitrescu
Website: http://www.neurobiology.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/david-mclean.html
Prof. Kevin Staras, University of Sussex (06/10/2016)
Time: 3pm
Venue: Classroom G3, New Hunt’s House, King’s College London
Title: Synaptic vesicle pools in hippocampus: post-retrieval fate and modulation by plasticity
Host: Christopher Puhl
Website: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/16600
Dr. Natalia de Marco, Weill Cornell Medical School (19/01/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: TBA
Host: Alejandro Pan Vazquez
Website: http://demarcolab.net/
Dr. Isaac Bianco, University College London (02/02/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Vision to Action: Perception of ethologically relevant visual stimuli and control of behavioural responses.
Host: Paride Antinucci
Website: https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=IHBIA26
Prof. Colin Akerman, University of Oxford (02/03/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Relating progenitors to fine scale excitatory synaptic connectivity
Host: Winnie Wefelmeyer
Website: http://www.pharm.ox.ac.uk/research/colin-akerman
Dr. Aman Saleem, University College London (06/04/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Vision to Navigation: Information processing between the Visual Cortex and Hippocampus.
Host: Antonio Hinojosa
Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/experimental-psychology/person/aman-saleem/
Dr. Claudia Clopath, Imperial College London (04/05/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Modelling synaptic plasticity in neural networks
Host: Alejandro Pan Vazquez
Website: http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/c.clopath/
Prof. James Fawcett, University of Cambridge (01/06/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Targeting the extracellular matrix to restore movement and memory to the damaged and aged CNS.
Host: Victoria Gonzalez-Sabater
Website: http://www.brc.cam.ac.uk/principal-investigators/james-fawcett/
Prof. Zhaoping Li, UCL (15/09/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Hodgkin Building, Guy’s Campus
Title: Exogeneous attentional guidance from primates to fish
Host: Giovanni Diana
Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/departments/npp/neuroscience-phd/supervisors/zli
Dr. Matt Jones, University of Bristol (05/10/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: the Harris Lecture Theatre, Hodgkin Building
Title: Like SNPs in the night: psychiatric risk genes and coordinated limbic-cortical activity during wake and sleep.
Host: Rachel Jackson
Website: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/phys-pharm/people/matt-w-jones/index.html
Dr. Ian Duguid, University of Edinburgh (02/11/2017)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Dendritic excitation-inhibition balance shapes cerebellar output and motor behaviour
Host: Elisa Galliano
Website: http://duguidlab.com/
Dr. Claire Wyart, ICM (07/12/2017) – Cancelled
Time: 4pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, New Hunts House
Title: Light on an ancestral sensory interface linking cerebrospinal fluid to motor circuits in vertebrates
Host: Clemence Bernard
Website: http://wyartlab.org/
Prof. Matteo Carandini, UCL (10/01/2018)
Time: 4pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: From vision to navigation: a journey across mouse cortex
Host: Tom Shalcross
Website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/cortexlab
Dr.Andreas Schaefer, The Crick Institute (01/03/2018)
Time: 3.30pm
Venue: The Gordon Museum, King’s College London
Title: Mammalian olfaction is a high bandwidth sense
Host: Stephanie Hynes
Website: https://www.crick.ac.uk/research/a-z-researchers/researchers-p-s/andreas-schaefer/
Giorgio Gilestro, Imperial College (3/05/18)
Dr Joris de Wit (14/6/18)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Gordon Museum, Hodgkin Building, Guy’s Campus
Title: Patterning the synaptic network
Host: Clémence Bernard
Website: http://www.vib.be/en/research/scientists/Pages/Joris-de-Wit-Lab.aspx
Prof. Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Vanderbilt University (24/09/18)
Time: 10:30am
Venue: Gordon Museum, Hodgkin Building, Guy’s Campus
Title: What good are more neurons in the cerebral cortex? Live longer and do more!
Host: Clémence Bernard
Website: http://www.suzanaherculanohouzel.com/lab/
SPECIAL EVENT: From synapses to behaviour: what is the quantal unit of neurocomputation?
On Friday the 12th of October the NEUReka team and the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (SWC) are hosting an afternoon of scientific discussion in the Gordon Museum (Hodgkin building, Guy’s campus) from 1:00pm.
There will be two keynote talks from Elisa Galliano, a former postdoc from Matthew Grubb’s lab, and Yo Isogai from the (SWC), followed by talks from postdocs and PhD students from both centres. Further to this there will be smaller discussion with snacks and drinks provided. All are welcome!
Dr Stuart Cobb, Edinburgh (6/12/18)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Gordon Museum, Hodgkin Building, Guy’s Campus
Title: Genetic therapies in neurodevelopmental disorders
Host: Rachel Jackson
Website: https://www.ed.ac.uk/discovery-brain-sciences/our-staff/research-groups/stuart-cobb
Dr. Claire Wyart, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moella Epinière (10/01/19)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Gordon Museum, Hodgkin Building, Guy’s Campus
Title: Tasting from within, a new interoceptive sensory pathway linking cerebrospinal fluid to motor circuits
Host: Clémence Bernard
Website: http://wyartlab.org/
Prof. John Cryan, University College Cork (7/02/19)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: A Gut Feeling about the Brain: Microbiome as a key regulator of Neurodevelopment and Ageing
Host: Clémence Bernard
Website: http://apc.ucc.ie/john_cryan/
Abstract: Ever had a “gut feeling” about something? It turns out, the connection between our gut and our brain might be stronger than we think. John F. Cryan, Prof. & Chair of Anatomy & Neuroscience and Principal Investigator at APC Microbiome Ireland will share surprising facts and insights about how our thoughts and emotions are connected to our guts. As a TEDMED speaker, Dr. Cryan shares his fascination with biomedicine and why it offers a perfect way to explore the interaction between the brain, gut and microbiome, and how this relationship applies to stress- and immune-related disorders such as depression, anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, obesity, and neurodevelopmental disorders including autism.
Prof. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, UCL (7/03/19)
Time: 12pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: “Sensitive periods of brain development during adolescence”
Host: Thomas Shallcross
Website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/cdcn/aboutus/steering/Blakemore
Prof. Lars Chittka, Queen Mary (2/04/19)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: “The mind of the bee”
Host: Thomas Sainsbury
Website: http://chittkalab.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk
Prof. Elizabeth Fisher, UCL (2/05/19)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: TBA
Host: Stephanie Hynes
Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/departments/npp/neuroscience-phd/supervisors/efisher
Dr. Timothy O’Leary, Cambridge (6/06/19)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: TBA
Host: TBA
Website: https://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?tso24
Prof. Andreas Luthi, FMI (05/09/2019)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: TBA
Host: TBA
Website: https://www.fmi.ch/research/groupleader/?group=35
Dr. Kerry Walker (3/10/19)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: Neural processes for experiencing a musical note
Host: David Exposito-Alonso
Website: https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/kerry-walker
Prof. Simon Laughlin, Cambridge (7/11/19)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: “Size and number matter – efficient neural design sets specifications for development”
Host: Nathalie Higgs
Website:https://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?SL104
Dr Athena Akrami, UCL (5/12/19)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Large seminar room, CDN, 4th Floor New Hunts House, Guy’s Campus
Title: “Study of sensory “prior distributions” in rodent models of perceptions and memory”
Host: Thomas Shallcross
Website:https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/groups/akrami-lab
Dr Lucia Prieto-Godino, Francis Crick Institute (4/06/2020)
Time: 2 pm
Webinar ID: Click this link
Title: Evolution of olfactory circuits
Host: David Exposito-Alonso
Website: https://prietogodinolab.org/
Prof. Carl Petersen, EPFL (23/06/21)
Time: 4pm
Webinar ID: To be released here
Title: TBA
Host: Varun Sreenivasan
Website: https://www.epfl.ch/labs/lsens/
Dr Madeline Lancaster, University of Cambridge (5/11/2020)
Time: 4 pm
Webinar ID: TBA
Title: TBA
Host: David Exposito-Alonso
Website: https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/group-leaders/h-to-m/madeline-lancaster/
Prof. Anil Seth, University of Sussex (02/04/2021)
Time: 3 pm
Webinar ID: 830 9710 4003
Title: Real problems and beast machines: predictive processing and conscious experience
Host: Monika Moissidis
Website: https://www.anilseth.com/
Dr Carsen Stringer, Janelia Research Campus (04/03/2021)
Time: 3 pm
Title: Highly precise visual coding in the presence of noise
Host: Domonic Burrows
Website: janelia.org/lab/stringer-lab
NEUReka! Seminar Series 