Lab News
2024
July. Our paper was accepted in Nature. Congrats Laurie Cazale-Debat, Lisa Scheunemann, Megan Day and other lab members! Check out the preprint.
We discovered that dopamine alters sensory perception in fruit flies, causing them to become 'love blind' and pursue mating despite imminent dangers.
As the male fly courts a female, dopamine levels rise, functioning as a filter that suppresses threat detection.
This enables the fly to ignore dangers and focus on courtship when mating is close.
This dopamine-driven filter could be a general mechanism that allows animals prioritise conflicting goals.
These findings enhance our understanding of behavioural neuroscience and will influence future research across species, including humans.
April. Congratulations to our brilliant PhD students, Megan Day and Milan Narzary! Megan has won the Best Talk Award in her section at the PhD MIBTP Conference, and Milan has been awarded the Kenneth Mather Memorial Prize Travel Bursary.
2023
November. Olga Procenko and Amber Kewin are ready to join our lab as post-doc and research associate. Excited to welcome them to the team!
Saloni Rose was nominated for a 2023 Michael K. O'Rourke Best Publication Award. Congrats!
June. Eve McCallion joins the lab as a research technician. Welcome!
May. Marine Balcou is awarded a prestigious MIBTP PhD fellowship. Huge achievement, congrats!
March. Our Leverhulme grant application is successful!
January. Milan joins the lab as a PhD student. Welcome!
January. Devika Bodas joins the lab as a Post-doctoral research assistant. Welcome!
2022
November. Our BBSRC grant application is successful!
September. The lab attended The Neurofly meeting in St Malo, France. Congrats to Laurie Cazale-Debat for giving a great talk and Saloni Rose for presenting a poster about her research.
September. Congrats David Alliband for completing his MRes project in the lab and producing cool data.
August. Congrats Orla Cronin for passing her MSci viva. Well done!
April. Excited to announce that the second lab’s paper has been accepted for publication in Proceedings B. 'Pre-copulatory reproductive behaviours are preserved in Drosophila melanogaster infected with bacteria'. Congrats Saloni Rose for an amazing job!
January. Very proud of George who passed his MRes viva mastering the fly connectome. Congratulations!
2021
October. How do animals prioritise between different behaviours? Our study was discussed in a Dispatch article in Current Biology. Check it out here.
September. Our lab’s second manuscript is now out in Biorxiv. Congrats Saloni Rose! Check it out here.
August. How are alternative options evaluated in the brain and specific actions prioritised? Our lab’s first paper is now out in @CurrentBiology. check it out here. Press release and Media cover here.
July. Many congratulations to Megan Day on winning our Head of School Prize for the MSci University Pathway. Megan did research into brain function by studying decision making in Drosophila fruit flies.
July. Excited to announce that our lab’s first paper has been accepted for publication in Current Biology. #StayTuned for novel insights into the mechanisms underlying #decision making in #Drosophila.
May. The lab virtually attended the Neurofly Meeting, where Carolina gave a talk.
April. Carolina has been named a 2021 FENS-Kavli Scholar. She's honoured to be a part of this amazing network of scientists and looking forward to working together to improve Neuroscience in Europe.
March. Our Pump Priming Award is successful!
March. Congratulations Megan Day on getting accepted into the prestigious BBSRC MIBTP programme to do a PhD with us. We're thrilled!
February. Congratulations to our very own Laurie Cazale-Debat on winning the extremely competitive and prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship to work on decision-making in our lab. Very well deserved! We're so happy and proud!
January. Jasmine Stanley-Ahmed joins the lab to do a MIBTP rotation project with us. Welcome!
2020
September. Congratulations to Jacob Moorse who is starting a PhD at Aston University. Sad to see you leave the lab, but wishing you all the best in your new adventure! You have done a superb job, and we will miss you!
Wearing ourDrosophila masks during quarantine times!
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September. Megan May and Charlotte Burmester join the lab as a MSci students. Welcome!
May. Laurie presented her research to the lab of Marta Moita @Champalimaud Foundation. Great feedback during quarantine times.
May. Carolina was one of the opening speakers in the new weekly “Bite of the Apple” lecture series on Zoom, with the aim of enthusing prospective undergraduates who hold offers to join our School in September.
April. Virtual workshop on NBLAST. Thanks Raksha!
March. Our first Virtual Lab Meeting!
March. Molly Gracey was awarded a MIBTP Fellowship to do a PhD in our lab! Congratulations!
February. Carolina gives a departmental talk at Indiana University, USA, hosted by Dan Tracey, and visits BDSC, the 'Fly Mecca', which keeps 70K fly stocks.
January. Raksha Gohel and Natasha Chavda join the lab for a couple of months to do some exciting experiments. Welcome!
2019
December. Christmas lab lunch!
December. The coolest people!
October.The lab took part in Thursday night’s Thinktank Lates! We enjoyed the evening and had lots of great conversations with members of the public @Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum. More info here.
October. Laurie Cazale (post-doc) and Lauren Blackburn (research technician) join the lab. Welcome!
September. Very proud of Sherry Cheriyamkunnel, the first member of the lab, who passed her MRes viva with flying colours! Congratulations. You rock!
September. Saloni Rose joins the lab as a PhD student. Welcome!
September. Carolina gives a talk at EDRC (The European Drosophila Research Conference) in Lausanne.
September. Jacob Moorse joins the lab as a Research Technician. Welcome!
June. Science outreach. Mike and Sherry, together with the Drosophila Labs at the University of Birmingham, share our science with the public at the Green Heart Festival. More info here
June. Carolina gives a talk at DIF-Day Symposium in Paris, France.
May. Mike Winstanley was awarded a MIBTP Fellowship to do a PhD in our lab! Congratulations Mike!
March. Congratulations to Saloni Rose who just was awarded a Darwin Fellowship to do a PhD in our lab!
March. Science outreach. Sherry and Mike took part in Brain Awareness Week. More info here.
March. Carolina gives talks in Israel at Tel Aviv University, hosted by Shiko Parmas, The Hebrew University of Israel, hosted by Yael Heifetz, and Bar Ilan University, hosted by Galit Shohat-Ophir.
February. Carolina gives a talk at The Cajal Institute, Madrid hosted by Alberto Ferrus and enjoyed the beautiful brain drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.
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