We are pleased to welcome Ahmet Tugrul Ozdemir to the Unit. Tugrul has joined Dr David Dupret’s Group for six months as an academic visitor in order to learn cell assembly analysis.
Tugrul studied Molecular Biology and Genetics with a minor in Psychology at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, and spent a year as an exchange student at the University of California Davis. During his undergraduate education, he also carried out summer projects at Professor Lu Chen’s laboratory at Stanford University, USA, and Professor Peter Somogyi’s laboratory at the University of Oxford.
Tugrul is currently working towards his doctoral degree under the supervision of Professor Thomas Klausberger at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. During his doctoral research, Tugrul aims to understand the distinct contributions of different principal cells in cortex to working memory and cognitive flexibility.
We are delighted to welcome Professor John Reynolds for a period of sabbatical research in the Unit. John is currently Head of Translational Neuroscience at the University of Otago Medical School in New Zealand, and his sabbatical at the University of Oxford is co-hosted by Unit collaborator Professor Stephanie Cragg.
John is a leading expert on the roles of the chemical messenger dopamine in shaping nerve cell activity and the brain mechanisms of learning and movement, research themes that are intensively studied in the Unit. John will use his time in the Unit to advance his own research as well as collaborative projects with the Magill Group and Sharott Group.
Our congratulations go to Unit D.Phil. student Farid Garas for successfully defending his doctoral thesis, entitled “Structural and functional heterogeneity of striatal interneuron populations”, in his viva voce examination on 25th May 2016.
Farid’s examiners were Professor Gilad Silberberg (Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) and Professor Zoltan Molnar (Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford).
Farid was supervised by Dr Andrew Sharott and Professor Peter Magill, and was originally recruited after completing a highly successful Final Honours School research project in the Unit as part of his B.A. in Medical Sciences at the University of Oxford.
On 19th May, Associate Unit member Paul Bolam and Unit D.Phil. student Anna-Kristin Kaufmann visited The Cotswold School to engage with pupils studying GCSE Ethics and A-level Biology. Paul and Anna started their visit with two separate groups of Year 10 students studying ethics, and led interactive discussion sessions focused on the use of animals in medical research. Paul and Anna highlighted some medical treatments that have been developed from research using animals, why animals are still needed for medical research, and how animals are used in brain research. They finished by discussing how animal use is regulated in the UK as well as the broader interactions of society with animals. Over the school lunch break, Paul and Anna talked with Year 11 pupils studying biology. Discussion topics included how scientists study the brain, what goes wrong in Parkinson’s disease, how Parkinson’s disease is treated, and the research that is being done to better understand the disease and to identify new therapies for it.
We are pleased to welcome Matthew Williams for his Final Honours School research project in the Magill Group. Matthew is currently studying for his B.A. in Medical Sciences at the University of Oxford. During Matthew’s time in the Unit, he will work on a project investigating the differential vulnerability of dopamine neurons in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease.
We are pleased to welcome Calum McIntyre for his Final Honours School research project in the Magill Group. Calum is currently studying for his B.A. in Medical Sciences at the University of Oxford. During Calum’s time in the Unit, he will work closely with Dr Natalie Doig on a project investigating the structural basis of communication between the striatum and external globus pallidus.
We are pleased to welcome Bethany Connell for her Final Honours School research project in the Sharott Group. Bethany is currently studying for her B.A. in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Oxford. During Bethany’s time in the Unit, she will work on a project that aims to define molecular markers for the identification of different types of cortical pyramidal neuron in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease.
We are pleased to welcome Luke Bryden for his research project in the Magill Group. Luke is currently studying for his M.Sc. and D.Phil. on the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Programme in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. During Luke’s time in the Unit, he will work closely with Dr Emilie Syed on a project investigating the impact of dopamine release on striatal circuit dynamics.
Members of Professor Peter Brown’s Research Programme recently took part in the National Institute of Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Public Open Day, representing the clinical interaction between the BNDU and the BRC. The team show-cased ‘deep brain stimulation’ and, in particular, how pathological electrical signals from deep brain nuclei like the subthalamic nucleus can be picked up to help neurosurgeons hone in on the best place to site the stimulating electrode when treating Parkinson’s disease. The public were invited to try out their own skill in doing this using an ingenious skull and brain model made by Unit scientist Dr Alek Pogosyan.
Congratulations to Unit student Eszter Kormann who has been awarded a Senior Hulme Scholarship by Brasenose College, Oxford. These Scholarships are awarded each year to the “best doctoral students as a recognition of academic distinction”. Eszter is in the second year of her D.Phil. studies, funded by the MRC and a University of Oxford Clarendon Fund Scholarship. Working as part of Dr Andrew Sharott’s Group, Eszter is defining how neurons in the subthalamic nucleus integrate cortical inputs in the healthy and Parkinsonian brain.