Neurobiology Division

One of the biggest challenges facing the biological sciences is to understand how brains can give rise to minds. The goal of the Division is to explore the properties of nerve cells at a fundamental level. What are the mechanisms that determine the special abilities of nerve cells to rapidly transmit and process information? What are the rules by which communication between small numbers of nerve cells in the intact brain gives rise to simple behaviours? What are the molecular processes that lead to common dementias and movement disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease?

Group Leaders

• Radu Aricescu - The Structural Biology of Synaptic Connectivity
• Anne Bertolotti - Understanding and preventing the deposition of misfolded proteins
• Michel Goedert - Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration
• Ingo Greger - AMPA receptor biogenesis, structure and function
• Michael Hastings - Molecular neurobiology of circadian timing
• Gregory Jefferis - Olfactory perception in the fruit fly
• Harvey McMahon - Membrane curvature as an organizing principle for eukaryotic cell biology
• William Schafer - Cellular and molecular mechanisms of behaviour
• Rebecca Taylor - Systemic control of proteostasis and ageing
• Marco Tripodi - Neural circuitry of action: from spatial perception to motor integration.

Independent Investigator Scientists

• René Frank - Molecular architecture of the postsynaptic membrane

Emeritus Scientists

• Nigel Unwin - Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor

Past Group Leaders

• Tiago Branco - Moved to Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, UCL in July 2016
• Leon Lagnado - Moved to University of Sussex, December 2013