Cellular & Molecular

Cellular & Molecular

The study of the behaviour of neurons at the cellular and molecular level has a long and distinguished tradition in Cambridge. Work on the cellular basis of sensation, developmental neurobiology, cell signalling, ion channels, neural degeneration and repair, and more integrative aspects of nervous system function are all strong areas in the School. Research spans a diverse spectrum from molecular signalling to neuroendocrinology to sensory and motor systems, with techniques used ranging from biochemical, single-cell recording and behavioural studies to large-scale computational methods. There are particular strengths in research on synaptic transmission, local network properties and sensory transduction, as well as a wealth of expertise at the Laboratory for Molecular Biology and the Sanger Institute.

Principal investigators

• Professor Ozgur B. Akan
  Our research interests are Internet of Everything, Internet of Bio-Nano Things, Neural Communication, Molecular Communication, Signal Processing and Information Theory. We are particularly interested in developing nanomaterial-based neuro-interfac...
• Dr Peter Arthur-Farraj
  I am a neurology registrar with an interest in neuromuscular disorders and nerve repair. I have recently been awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellowship, to work with Professor Michael Coleman’s group at the John Van Geest Cen...
• Edward Avezov
  Through an in-depth investigation of the neuronal cell biophysical properties, our program aims to Identify new targetable pathways, disrupted in dementia. In particular, we seek understanding of the role Endoplasmic Reticulum, and its structure f...
• Dr Gabriel Balmus
  My lab is interested in understanding the roles of DNA Damage Repair (DDR) in mature neurons and its links to neurodegenerative disorders (including Alzheimer's and related diseases) and ageing. We are using a variety of tools including CRISPR-Ca...
• Professor Roger Barker
  I work on: Clinical aspects of Parkinson's and Huntington's disease including the study of disease heterogeneity using cognitive testing, functional imaging and genetic biomarkers. Examining the value of different biomarkers to assess disease onse...
• Dr Damiano G. Barone
  Due to the inability of the nervous system to regenerate itself, injuries to the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerve can have a profound impact on patients, their families and society. Current treatment options remain limited. Bioelectronics...
• Dr Sumru Bayin
  An understanding of the diversity of neural progenitors and flexibility in their fate choices - lineage plasticity - is crucial for understanding how complex organs like the brain are generated or undergo repair. The neonatal mouse cerebellum is a...
• Dr Howard Baylis
  We are investigating the functions of genes involved in Alzheimer’s disease using C. elegans. We have focussed on presenilin genes as presenilin mutations in human cause familial Alzheimer’s disease. We aim to address the mechanism by which presen...
• Dr David Belin
  Our research is interested in the neural, cellular and molecular substrates of inter-individual vulnerability to develop impulsive/compulsive disorders such as drug addiction, Obsessive / Compulsive Disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, pathological gamb...
• Dr Anne Bertolotti
  Diverse neurodegenerative diseases share a common cause: aggregation of a specific protein in selective regions of the brain. The disease-causing proteins are expressed throughout life but neurodegenerative diseases are mostly late-onset. In fac...
• Professor Andrea Brand FRS FMedSci
  Uncovering the molecular mechanisms that control neural stem quiescence and reactivation is crucial for understanding tissue regeneration under normal and pathological conditions and in response to ageing. It is critical to learn not only how stem...
• Professor Sarah Bray
  We are interested in understanding the signalling pathways that co-ordinate the decisions made by cells during development. The ultimate fate of a cell is dictated in part by its heredity and in part through interactions with neighbouring cells. O...
• Professor Kevin Brindle
  We have developed non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that enable us to track labelled cells that have been implanted in the CNS. This work has been conducted in collaboration with Robin Franklin. In addition we are developi...
• Professor Guy Brown
  We are interested in the mechanisms of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in the brain. We use mouse models of disease and cultured brain cells to investigate how microglia become activated by inflammatory stimuli and how such microglia dama...
• Dr Raymond Bujdoso
  Prion diseases such as scrapie of sheep and goats, BSE of cattle and CJD of humans are transmissible neurodegenerative diseases. The research of our prion group is concerned with providing knowledge to try and answer some of the important question...
• Dr Simon Bullock
  Our primary goal is to understand how cellular components are sorted and dispersed by microtubule-based motor complexes, and how these transport processes contribute to the functions of cells in situ (i.e. within organisms). We have long-standing ...
• Dr David Bulmer
  Abdominal pain is a leading cause of morbidity in gastrointestinal disease. Despite this we still know little of how pain is triggered in “functional” gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and gastrointestinal diseases ...
• Professor Malcolm Burrows
  I work on the properties of neurons and the circuits they form to understand how they control behaviour. 1. Motor control. How do nonspiking local interneurons organise motor neurons to generate limb movements? How do spiking interneurons proce...
• Dr Folma Buss
  We study the cellular roles of myosin motor proteins and how they mediate the organization of cellular compartments and control intracellular transport along actin filaments. One of our major aims is to understand the mechanism of cargo selection ...
• Dr Philip Buttery
  We work on the role of rho family GTPases and their regulators in the plasticity of CNS synapses, as related to brain disease and recovery from brain injury. We are currently focussing on a regulator of the GTPase Rac1 which is upregulated with n...
• Dr Emma Cahill
  My immediate objective is to develop my research in neuronal signalling complexes and apply what I find to unanswered fundamental questions related to memory and adaptive behaviour. In my research, I address the signalling requirements of memories...
• Professor Albert Cardona
  To study the relationship between circuit structure and function, we must know the synaptic connectivity that defines the circuit structure, observe the activity of the neurons in the circuit over time, study how the pattern of activity can change...
• Professor Patrick Chinnery FRCP FMedSci
  I am interested in the genetic basis of neurological disorders, and particularly mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria are the main source of energy within neurons and glia. Mutations in genes responsible for mitochondrial biogenesis are a major c...
• Dr Hannah Clarke
  Understanding the neural and neurochemical basis of behaviours mediated by the prefrontal cortex and their relevance to psychiatric disorders.
• Professor Michael Coleman
  We study axon degeneration and its roles in neurodegenerative disease. One focus is proteins regulating the degeneration of injured axons (‘Wallerian degeneration'), which we have linked into a molecular pathway. Disease models involving similar m...
• Dr Tony Coll
  My current research continues to focus upon the roles of the hypothalamus in the control of energy balance. Our current understanding of the central control of appetite has relied heavily upon mouse models and I continue to utilise the power of b...
• Professor William Colledge
  My research group is interested in the neuroendocrine regulation of mammalian fertility using transgenic mice as a model system. Puberty and the regulation of mammalian fertility is controlled by hormonal signalling within the hypothalamus. My re...
• Professor Alastair Compston
  My research interests focus on clinical and experimental demyelinating disease with an emphasis on multiple sclerosis - the commonest potentially disabling disease of young adults. The research group has a broad set of interests: we work on the a...
• Dr Geoffrey Cook
  My research concerns the mechanisms controlling axon growth. In the laboratory we are investigating two axon-repulsive systems, 1) the characterization of somite glycoproteins that repel axons, creating the segmented pattern of spinal nerves durin...
• Professor Andrew Crawford
  I am interested in biophysics and physiology of the vertebrate inner ear , especially the cochlea. My research has focussed on the electrophysiology of cochlear hair cells with a view to understanding how they manage to respond to nanometre dis...
• Dr Sarah Crisp
  My goal is to advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying neurological diseases associated with autoantibodies. These diseases include forms of encephalitis, epilepsy, demyelination, movement disorders and peripheral neuropathies amongs...
• Dr Hannah Critchlow
  Hannah is an internationally-acclaimed neuroscientist with a background in neuropsychiatry. Best known for demystifying the human brain on regular radio, TV and festival platforms. She regularly appears on the BBC TV and Radio, most recently as ...
• Professor Anthony Davenport
  Our research group focuses on understanding the role of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs, targets for about ~50% of current drugs) together with their transmitters in humans. We use in vitro pharmacology, to determine how these are altered with ...
• Dr Janet Deane
  We study the role of lipid processing pathways in demyelinating neurodegenerative disease. We are interested in how the composition of cellular membranes is maintained and what the effects are when this composition is altered. Lipids and proteins ...
• Dr Steve Edgley
  I’m interested in how movements are controlled. Our everyday movements are performed with little conscious thought and are remarkably precise. Despite what the textbooks tell you, the way in which this is accomplished is poorly understood. I work ...
• Dr Mark Evans
  My group are interested in (1) how brain detects changes in blood glucose and how this glucose-sensing interacts with peripheral metabolism; (2) how defences against hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) may become abnormal in diabetes; (3) the short an...
• Professor James Fawcett
  Axon regeneration in the damaged CNS: Regeneration of axons after CNS damage is blocked by several molecules in the environment and by loss of intrinsic regeneration ability, We modify the environment to make it more permissive and modify axonal ...
• Professor Robin Franklin FMedSci, FRS
  Robin Franklin is a Principal Investigator at Altos Las - Cambridge Institute having previously been Professor of Stem Cell Medicine at the Wellcome Trust-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. His lab works on the mechanisms of CNS regeneration with ...
• Kristian Franze
  We are taking an interdisciplinary approach to investigate how cellular forces, local cell and tissue stiffness and cellular mechanosensitivity contribute to CNS development and disease. Methods we are exploiting include atomic force microscopy, t...
• Dr Tim Fryer
  My research concentrates on positron emission tomography (PET) methodology, with particular emphasis on the quantitative accuracy of the physiological parameters derived from the data. Current research themes are: parametric mapping using b...
• Dr Elisa Galliano
  The ability of nerve cells to plastically modify themselves is one of the characteristics that make the brain millions of times more powerful and capable of learning than any supercomputer. I am particularly interested in the ways in which, during...
• Dr Michel Goedert
  Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are characterized by the presence of abnormal filamentous assemblies within some nerve cells. Similar assemblies are found in related disorders, including progressive supranuclear palsy, dementia with Le...
• Dr Ingo Greger
  Information transfer in the brain occurs at synapses where chemical transmitters are released from presynaptic terminals and are received by postsynaptic receptors. Glutamate is a major neurotransmitter and glutamate receptors are key to synaptic ...
• Professor Fiona Gribble
  Endocrine communication between the gut and brain, relaying food-related signals that control appetite and metabolism.
• Dr Jules Griffin
  We have been using a range of analytical techniques, and in particular NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, to follow metabolism in the brain in a range of disease processes. This ranges from flux measurements to understand the cycling of metab...
• Professor Roger Hardie
  Phototransduction, TRP channels and Calcium signalling in Drosophila Phototransduction in the fruitfly Drosophila is an important model for G-protein coupled signalling and fascinating in its own right. We study the underlying cellular and molecu...
• Professor William Harris
  Where does the nervous system come from in the embryo? How does it grow to the right size and shape? How do stem cells turn into more committed neuronal progenitors and how do these cells know when to leave the cycle and differentiate into neural ...
• Dr Michael Hastings FRS, FMedSci
  Cellular and molecular basis to circadian rhythms in mammals and its relevance to metabolic and neurological disease.
• Professor Allan Herbison
  We are focused upon understanding the properties and functioning of the key neural populations controlling fertility in mammals; the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons and the kisspeptin neurons. Together, these cells generate the “puls...
• Professor Christine Holt FMedSci FRS
  My laboratory studies how nerve connections are first established in the brain. We focus on the developing visual system and our main goal is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of axon guidance that enable axons to navigate from t...
• Dr Tony Jackson
  In neurones, voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels initiate the action potential. Sodium channels consist of a ~ 250 kDa alpha-subunit and ~40 kDa beta-subunits. The beta-subunits modulate channel gating. The Nav beta-subunits possess an extracellul...
• Dr Gregory Jefferis
  Our broad goal is to understand how smell turns into behaviour in the fruit fly brain. We use a combination of genetic labelling and manipulation, targeted in vivo whole cell patch clamp recording and high resolution neuroanatomy to study olfactor...
• Dr Joanne Jones
  We study human autoimmunity; in particular we aim to understand why autoimmunity often occurs during recovery from T cell lymphopenia. People with multiple sclerosis, treated with the highly effective lymphocyte depleting antibody alemtuzumab off...
• Dr Susan Jones
  The primary focus of our research is the function of AMPA and NMDA glutamate receptors at excitatory synapses in the brain. We study the properties of glutamate receptors, glutamatergic synaptic transmission, and synaptic plasticity. We are intere...
• Professor Clemens Kaminski
  We develop advanced microscopic imaging techniques that permit us to elucidate molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration. We use techniques such as lifetime, spectrum and polarisation resolved imaging that inform on protein misfolding, aggregat...
• Dr Ragnhildur Thora Karadottir
  My lab’s interests are neurotransmitter signalling to oligodendrocytes and their progenitor cells, in both health and disease. Oligodendrocytes produce myelin (in the CNS), which speeds the propagation of the action potential. When the myelin s...
• Dr David Keays
  The Keays lab exploits cerebral organoids, 2-photon light microscopy, and in vivo genetic methods to investigate important questions in developmental and sensory neurobiology. We are interested in: (1) How mutations in the tubulin and MAST genes c...
• Dr Sepiedeh Keshavarzi
  The broad goal of our research is to understand how neurons and the brain circuits in which they are embedded use incoming sensory information to generate cognitive processes and guide behaviour. Our primary focus is on the neural underpinnings o...
• Professor Roger Keynes
  Growth cone repulsion is an important mechanism controlling axon growth. During development it guides axons by excluding them from repulsive regions of the embryo. Following injury to the adult brain it may also block axon regeneration, with major...
• Dr Svetlana Khoronenkova
  Human cells repair thousands of DNA lesions daily. The majority of lesions arise from the intrinsic chemical instability of DNA and include single-strand breaks and base modifications. Unrepaired lesions can obstruct DNA replication, leading to mu...
• Professor David Klenerman
  Small soluble protein aggregates are thought to play a key role in the initial development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, but are difficult to study using conventional methods due to their low concent...
• Professor Tuomas Knowles
  We work on the physico-chemical properties and behaviour of biological molecules and soft materials. The research in the group is highly interdisciplinary. Members of the group have a wide range of backgrounds. We used methods from biochemistry, c...
• Dr Johannes Kohl
  Neural circuits underlying social behaviours
• Dr Mark Kotter
  My group is interested in the biology of adult CNS stem and precursor cells in the context of disease. A particular focus lies on mechanisms of CNS remyelination, a stem/precursor cell-mediated process in which new myelin sheaths are restored to d...
• Dr Janet Kumita
  My research group uses a multidisciplinary approach, including biophysics, cell biology and protein engineering, to study the molecular processes underlying protein self-assembly, in particular aberrant amyloid fibril formation related to disorder...
• Dr Andras Lakatos
  My laboratory develops and uses human organoid and other stem cell-based models to explore mechanisms underlying glia-neuron-synapse interactions in development, injury and neurodegenerative disorders, including ALS and Frontotemporal Dementia. We...
• Dr Matthias Landgraf
  We seek to understand how neural networks are specified and how they assemble during development. The locomotor network of the Drosophila embryo and larva serves as a powerful experimental model. Composed of identified neurons whose connections ha...
• Professor Simon Laughlin
  I am interested in discovering design principles that govern the structure and function of neurons, neural circuits and sense organs. I combine an empirical approach with constraint-based modelling to see how the basic elements of circuits and se...
• Dr Janin Lautenschläger
  I am interested in neurodegenerative diseases, in particular on processes at the synapse. A very recent concept in biology is the finding that synaptic proteins can undergo phase separation, forming condensed droplets in another liquid phase (like...
• Professor Sarah Lummis
  My lab works on Cys-loop receptors, which are one of the major classes of ligand-gated ion channels. The family includes in its vertebrate members 5-HT3, nACh, GABAA, GABAC, and glycine receptors. Proteins from this family are critical for fast sy...
• Dr Omar Mahroo MA, MB, BChir, PhD, FRCOphth, FHEA
  I investigate human retinal function in health and disease, using electrophysiology and complementary approaches including retinal imaging, genetic investigation and machine learning. Key current areas of investigation: -Retinal structure and fu...
• Professor Giovanna Mallucci FMedSci
  My lab is interested in understanding mechanisms of neurodegeneration. The central theme is the identification of common pathways across the spectrum of these disorders (which include Alzheimer's and related diseases) that are relevant for both me...
• Professor Keith Martin
  The main goal of our group is to understand better the mechanisms of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death in glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. We aim to develop methods to protect RGC thus slowing the progression of gla...
• Dr Liria Masuda-Nakagawa
  I am interested in the circuit mechanisms of odor discrimination learning in the higher brain. The mushroom bodies (MBs) of insect brains are centers for associative olfactory learning. Using Drosophila larva, I have characterized the input region...
• Dr Hugh Matthews
  Phototransduction and olfactory transduction. Calcium homeostasis in vertebrate photoreceptors and olfactory receptors, and its role in modulating their electrical responses to stimulation. Light-induced calcium release within the photoreceptor ou...
• Dr Will McEwan
  The ability to selectively destroy harmful proteins could represent a powerful therapeutic approach in several diseases. Our work focusses on a newly discovered arm of immunity that operates in the intracellular environment. Viruses that import an...
• Dr Harvey McMahon FRS
  Molecular mechanisms of vesicle exocytosis, endocytosis and membrane trafficking in neurons. We are interested in understanding basic mechanisms of vesicle trafficking, especially at the synapse, where synaptic vesicle exocytosis and endocytosis ...
• Dr Florian Merkle
  My laboratory uses pluripotent stem cells to model human diseases that arise from the loss of aberrant function of neurons in the hypothalamus that regulate essential physiological and behavioural processes. In particular, obesity is thought to re...
• Dr Su Metcalfe
  The application of nanotechnology to healthcare - nano-medicine - is now recognised worldwide as a new era in clinical medicine. By loading biocompatible, biodegradable nano-particles with growth factor, and targeting to sites of tissue damage, a ...
• Dr Emmanouil Metzakopian
  My group is interested in understanding the effect of environmental stress, including oxidative stress, on the progress of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Our aim is to identify novel therapeutic targets to protect ...
• Dr Susanna Mierau
  My research focuses on the fundamental rules that govern the development of synaptic and network activity in the cortex and how this process is disrupted in autism and related disorders, with the ultimate goal of developing novel therapies. I com...
• Dr Paul Miller
  I use electrophysiology and structural biology to understand GABA-A receptors and ligands that target them. I am also using these approaches to develop novel small molecule and antibody tools against GABA-A receptor signalling and to study these t...
• Professor Amy Milton
  Memory is a critical function of the brain, but little is known about the mechanisms by which memories are modified, adapted, and persist. Memories are known to 'reconsolidate' undergoing updating and strengthening following their destabilisation ...
• Dr Eric Miska
  We are interested in all aspects of gene regulation by regulatory RNA. Current research themes include: miRNA biology and pathology, miRNA mechanism, piRNA biology and the germline, endo-siRNAs in epigenetic inheritance and evironmental conditioni...
• Professor Jenny Morton
  Our research is focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration and on developing strategies to delay or prevent the death of neurones in injured or degenerating brain, particularly in Huntington's disease. We are also interes...
• Dr Nicholas Mundy
  We study the evolutionary genetics of brain size and sensory systems in primates. In particular, we are interested in the evolution and selection of colour vision polymorphisms in New World monkeys and lemurs, the evolution of vomeronasal recept...
• Dr Cahir O'Kane
  We are interested in the basic biology of axonal ER, and its relevance to neurodegenerative disease, using Drosophila as a model. Axonal ER forms a continuous tubular network throughout the neuron, comparable to a “neuron within a neuron”, potenti...
• Dr Timothy O'Leary
  How do nervous systems adapt and repair themselves? How do they exhibit coherent function in spite of variable underlying properties? I study these questions using theory, computational models and experiments. For example, it is well known that n...
• Dr John O'Neill
  The causes and consequences of cellular circadian timekeeping and its interaction with sleep.
• Professor Stephen O'Rahilly FRS FMedSci
  My research has been concerned with the elucidation of the basic causes of obesity and Type 2 diabetes at a molecular level and the translation of those discoveries into improved diagnosis and therapy for patients. My work has uncovered several p...
• Dr Zahid Padamsey
  Our aim is to understand how nutrition impacts brain function and energy use. We focus on how dietary manipulations (e.g. calorie restriction, high fat diet) affect the cortex, which we probe in vivo using two-photon imaging and electrophysiology ...
• Dr David Parker
  We examine cellular and synaptic properties in neuronal networks using the lamprey spinal cord locomotor network as a model system. While this network is claimed, and often cited, as being characterised, there are actually significant gaps in our ...
• Professor Ole Paulsen
  The primary interest of my group is the relationship between network oscillations and synaptic plasticity. Network oscillations naturally organise spike timing conducive to spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), a strong candidate for a mechani...
• Dr Luca Peruzzotti-Jametti
  Research in our group is focused on the understanding of inflammation in central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Over the past years, our research in regenerative neuroimmunology led to novel experimental advanced therapeutics with neural stem cell...
• Professor Anna Philpott
  Our laboratory is interested in understanding the coordination of cell proliferation with cell fate determination and differentiation in development, stem cells and reprogramming, focusing particularly on the nervous system (as well as in endocri...
• Dr Stefano Pluchino
  Recent evidence from our own laboratory indicates that the systemic injection of somatic neural stem/precursor cells (NPCs) very efficiently protect the CNS from the chronic degeneration induced by inflammation both in small rodents as well as in ...
• Dr Eleanor Raffan BVM&S PhD DipECVIM-CA MRCVS
  I am interested in the neural control of energy homeostasis in the body. We study canine models of obesity to discover new genes linked to obesity and interrogate the mechanisms in which genetic variation can influence neural control of metabolis...
• Dr Ruma Raha-Chowdhury
  My main interest is in innate immunity, inflammation and brain iron homeostasis. Inflammation and innate immunity are key players in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Down syndrome (DS). Individuals with DS have a spectrum of hematopoietic dysfunction...
• Dr Taufiq Rahman
  My research interests broadly lie in two categories - structure-function studies of intracellular calcium channels and rational design and development of selective modulators of signalling proteins including ion channels
• Dr Evan Reid
  My group's research is focussed on the hereditary spastic paraplegias, genetic conditions where the corticospinal tract axons degenerate. HSPs selectively involve axons while sparing the neuronal cell bodies, so we study them to understand molecul...
• Dr Frank Reimann
  Research in the lab is currently focusing on enteroendocrine cells, especially glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secreting cells, which we hope to target in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. GLP-1 secreting cells are electrically excitable and ...
• Dr Jing Ren
  The serotonin system is the most frequently targeted neural system for treating mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety. Our team focuses on bridging the huge gap on the link between the abnormalities of serotonergic wiring and transmis...
• Dr Rhys Roberts
  Our group is interested in peripheral nerve diseases, particularly the inherited peripheral neuropathies, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). We have focused on the demyelinating forms of CMT, where defects in intracellular membrane trafficking p...
• Dr Hugh Robinson
  We study synaptic integration in mammalian cortical neurons - encoding of synaptic inputs into patterns of action potentials, or spikes. We are currently interested in - development of advanced electrical stimulation techniques (conductan...
• Professor David Rubinsztein
  The pathogenesis of diseases caused by codon reiteration mutations (like Huntington’s disease and oculopharangeal muscular dystrophy). Description of research: We are studying the pathogenesis of diseases caused by codon reiteration mutations, l...
• Dr Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon
  Ordered assembly of a small number of proteins into amyloid structures within neurons and, in some cases, glia underlies neurodegenerative disease. We work to understand the molecular basis of amyloid assembly in neurodegenerative disease. Key que...
• Dr Nina Rzechorzek
  Hosted by the O'Neill Lab, I am a physiologist and clinical academic, specialising in veterinary neurology and neurosurgery. My research focuses on brain temperature and how this interacts with the molecular circadian clockwork in human brain cell...
• Professor Stephen Sawcer
  My group researches multiple sclerosis. We use genetic analysis to identify relevant variants and then attempt to understand the immunological and neurobiological consequences of these using expression studies and functional assays. As well as con...
• Dr William Schafer
  The fundamental nature of mental phenomena such as perception, learning and memory is one of the remaining scientific mysteries. Since the neuroanatomy of mammalian nervous systems is exceedingly complex and incompletely characterized, it is diffi...
• Dr Christof Schwiening
  Electrical activity of neurones is associated with calcium influx through various channels. Most neurones extrude this calcium very rapidly on the plasma-membrane calcium pump (PMCA). Our research shows that this extrusion occurs in exchange for h...
• Professor Ben Simons
  I am interested in applying methods of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and population dynamics to lineage tracing studies to investigate mechanisms of stem cell fate in development and maintenance. As well as neurogenesis in adult mammalian ...
• Dr John Skidmore
  I am a medicinal chemist and drug discovery leader interested in working collaboratively with academics and industry in order to translate basic neurodegeneration research into potential new treatments. The Alzheimer’s Research UK Cambridge Drug ...
• Dr Ewan Smith
  The main interest of the Smith lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms by which sensory neurones detect noxious stimuli, so-called nociceptors. We are particularly interested in how acid activates nociceptors in both physiological and pathop...
• Professor Maria Grazia Spillantini FRS FMedSci
  Our interest is in the identification of the mechanisms leading to neuronal death and clinical phenotype in diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and frontotemporal dementia. In particular we study the role of microtubule-assoc...
• Professor Peter St George-Hyslop
  My laboratory focuses upon understanding the causes and molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease and Fronto-Temporal Dementia. We and others have shown that these diseases are frequently c...
• Professor Colin Taylor
  Roles of inositol trisphosphate (IP3) receptors in generating intracellular calcium signals. Structural determinants of IP3 receptor behaviour. Decoding of calcium signals.
• Professor Roger Thomas
  Intracellular ion homeostasis in nerve cells. I use pH and Ca2+ sensitive microelectrodes to study ionic interactions inside large snail neurones. I am currently investigating the Ca:H coupling ratio of the plasma membrane Ca pump, or PMCA.
• Dr Nigel Unwin
  I am interested in finding out how ion channels work, using electron microscopy to analyse their structures trapped in different physiological states. Current research focuses on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, the transmitter-gated ion chan...
• Dr Jelle van den Ameele
  I am a neurologist with an interest in developmental neurobiology and mitochondrial genetics. In the lab, we study how cells and tissues respond to mitochondrial dysfunction, focusing on neural stem cells and the brain. Our goal is to identify nov...
• Professor Michele Vendruscolo
  Our research at the Centre for Misfolding Diseases (https://www.cmd.ch.cam.ac.uk/) is aimed at understanding the molecular origins of neurodegenerative disorders. We have set up an interdisciplinary programme that brings together methods and conc...
• Dr Elizabeth Warburton
  Research interests are as follows 1. Molecular imaging of atheroma - particularly carotid plaque imaging using PET/CT and MRI techniques. Both Clinical and microPET imaging. Proof of principle trials of novel atheroma drugs with imaging biomarker...
• Dr Varun Warrier
  My team works on social and genetic factors that influence neurodevelopment, and mental health. We have a particular interest in investigating heterogeneity in outcomes to develop targeted support and therapy for those who need it. This publicat...
• Dr Alex Whitworth
  My lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms of mitochondrial homeostasis in relation to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and motor neuron disease. We use a combination of the powerful genetic techniques of Drosophila...
• Dr Peter Wooding
  Correlation between placental structure and function using light and electron microscopy for structure and immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridisation for function. The focus is mainly on ruminants but includes comparative studies on a wide vari...
• Professor Giles Yeo MBE
  I study brain control of body-weight, and currently have two main aims: Identifying new players in the hypothalamic control of energy balance. a. Genetic studies point to the brain as having a crucial role in modulating appetitive behaviour. A col...
• Professor Patrick Yu-Wai-Man PhD, FRCPath, FRCOphth
  I am an academic neuro-ophthalmologist with a major research interest in optic neuropathies, neurogenetics and mitochondrial eye diseases. I hold joint clinical appointments at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and Moorfields Eye Hospital in Lon...
• Dr Chao Zhao
  My research focuses on mechanism of remyelination of central nervous system following demyelination in various conditions. After demyelinating injury, the system activates a repair process, which involves oligodendrocyte progenitor cells turning i...