We are based at the Zoology Department, University of Cambridge
Our Research
The human brain consists of over 80 billion neurons which connect with each other to send signals via neurotransmitters that either turn on or off their partner neurons. To store memories and alter behaviours these networks change their balance of ‘on’ and ‘off’ signals. Studying this in large brains is challenging, instead we turn to the nematode worm, C. elegans. Despite having only 302 neurons, worms learn new behaviours and navigate mazes. The small size of their brain means that we have the physical map of the connections between all neurons. However, in some ways their brains appear more complicated, as each of their neurotransmitters encode both on and off signals, and they have many more receptors for these signals. As such neuroscientists, who are studying learning and other behaviours using C. elegans, cannot easily predict how information passes through the worm brain.
Our work aims to characterise the complexity of the worm brain by studying neurotransmitter receptors, to do this we will determine their neurotransmitters and whether they send on or off signals as well as their distribution across the brain and roles in generating behaviour and learning. This will lead to a deeper understanding of the worm brain, allowing other neuroscientists to interpret their findings as well as have the potential to discover new receptors that have never been studied. Understanding these fundamental processes of neuron communication and learning in worms is a critical step towards truly understanding the complexity of larger brains, including our own.
News
July 2026
Matilda, Urim and Imisi join the lab for summer projects this year working on dopamine receptors in various contexts.
July 2026
Liz and Inchara had a great time representing the lab at the European worm meeting and CeNeuro in Bordeux this year!
July 2026
Congrats to Inchara on winning the poster prize at CeNeuro this year. She's onto a winner with this one!
April 2026
Inchara wins the poster prize at the UK C. elegans meeting! Massive congrats and well deserved!
April 2026
Mel presented a fantastic poster on her undergraduate project at the UK C. elegans meeting, well done Mel!
April 2026
Well done to Luke for giving his first conference talk at the UK C. elegans meeting on his undergraduate project.
April 2026
The lab had a fantastic time at the UK C elegans meeting in Southampton!
Dec 2025
And so we say goodbye to 2025 with a lovely lab outing to the Mill for lunch!
Oct 2025
Mel and Luke join us for their part II projects this year. They'll be looking at dopamine receptor expression across the nervous system and using Neuropal.
Oct 2025
Our brand new review of dopamine in C. elegans is out now! We focus on dopamine itself, its receptors and its role in behaviour. Huge thanks to Inchara for all her hard work on this one! Read it here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250843
Sep 2025
We're hiring a postdoc! If you're interested in the neurobiology of dopamine signalling and want to work on a cool new project involving imaging, behaviour and computaitonal analyses look no further!
Sep 2025
Freya and Aiman presented their poster at NeuroBioUK in York this week and won one of the poster prizes! We're so proud of their work this summer - they found some really interesting differential expression of receptors in males.