Carolina Rezaval- Group leader
Carolina was born in Patagonia, Argentina. She received a Masters and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires. She did her post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford, where she studied the genetic and neural basis of innate sexual behaviours in Drosophila. As a BBSRC researcher co-investigator with Prof. Stephen Goodwin at Oxford, she focused on understanding how the brain differs between the sexes, and how these differences explain distinct behaviours shown by male and female flies. Carolina has been appointed Birmingham Fellow in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham, and has started her independent research group in April 2018. She lectures and supervises in Neurobiology. Watch a 3 minute video about Carolina's past work here.
Carolina Rezaval- Group leader
Carolina was born in Patagonia, Argentina. She received a Masters and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires. She did her post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford, where she studied the genetic and neural basis of innate sexual behaviours in Drosophila. As a BBSRC researcher co-investigator with Prof. Stephen Goodwin at Oxford, she focused on understanding how the brain differs between the sexes, and how these differences explain distinct behaviours shown by male and female flies. Carolina has been appointed Birmingham Fellow in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham, and has started her independent research group in April 2018. She lectures and supervises in Neurobiology. Watch a 3 minute video about Carolina's past work here.
Mike Winstanley- Research Technician
During my studies at the University of Sussex (BSc-MSc), I became interested in how decisions are made by the brain and reflected in their neural activity. My MSc research project focussed on understanding how different behaviours can be employed to make an appropriate decision. By using ants with a defined social structure, the decision made by each ant became conflicted between the needs of the individual and the needs of the colony. By joining the Rezaval lab, I am looking to further understand the fundamentals of how the brain chooses the correct action based on the computations of neural circuits, implicated in decision-making.
Sherry Cheriyamkunnel- MRes student
Sherry was awarded the Genetics Society Summer Studentship Award to investigate the presence of translating ribosomes in the transcription sites of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe with Dr Saverio Brogna. Her research project with Dr Carolina Rezaval focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying behavioural conflicts in the fruit fly Drosophila.
Sherry Cheriyamkunnel- MRes student
Sherry was awarded the Genetics Society Summer Studentship Award to investigate the presence of translating ribosomes in the transcription sites of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe with Dr Saverio Brogna. Her research project with Dr Carolina Rezaval focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying behavioural conflicts in the fruit fly Drosophila.
Laurie Cazale- Postdoctoral researcher (starting in November, 2019)
Laurie obtained a Research Master in Neuroscience, Cognition and Behaviour from the University of Toulouse. Her scientific interests have focused on understanding how sensory and social experiences occurring during early developmental stages impact the expression of social behaviours in arthropods. For her PhD, Laurie joined the lab of Jean-François Ferveur, University of Burgundy, Dijon, where she addressed this question using Drosophila as a model organism. Taking advantage of sophisticated neurogenetic tools available in fruit flies, she studied changes in adult behaviour following exposure to pheromones during larval stages. As a postdoc in the lab of Carolina Rezaval, she is looking to deepen her understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying behavioural decisions.
Laurie obtained a Research Master in Neuroscience, Cognition and Behaviour from the University of Toulouse. Her scientific interests have focused on understanding how sensory and social experiences occurring during early developmental stages impact the expression of social behaviours in arthropods. For her PhD, Laurie joined the lab of Jean-François Ferveur, University of Burgundy, Dijon, where she addressed this question using Drosophila as a model organism. Taking advantage of sophisticated neurogenetic tools available in fruit flies, she studied changes in adult behaviour following exposure to pheromones during larval stages. As a postdoc in the lab of Carolina Rezaval, she is looking to deepen her understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying behavioural decisions.
Lauren Blackburn- Research technician (starting in November 2019)
Lauren graduated from the University of Worcester with a BSc in Human Biology and from the University of York with an MSc by Research in Neuroscience, supervised by Sean Sweeney and William Brackenbury. During her MSc, Lauren investigated the function of tipE, a putative Drosophila orthologue of the mammalian voltage-gated sodium channel β1 subunit. This was achieved by evaluating Drosophila mutants in both behavioural and electrophysiological assays.
Past Lab members
Catherine Butterfield- MSci student
Catherine is currently a 4th year (MSci) undergraduate student. Her third year literature review was supervised by Dr Jan Kreft, it centred around how human babies acquire their commensal/symbiotic microorganisms and the lifelong implications this has for health and disease. Her current project focuses on investigating how internal states affect behavioural decisions.
