Cardiff University, PhD, Neuroscience

Research supervision areas include: Mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and their role in learning, memory and Alzheimer’s disease using behavioural, electrophysiological and molecular biological techniques; mechanisms underlying pattern adaptation in the visual cortex, using extracellular recording and optical imaging of cortical activity; the role played by NMDA receptors, alpha-CaMKII and CREB in cortical plasticity from birth to senescence, using electrophysiological, neuroanatomical and in vivo imaging techniques; the ability of neuronal transplants to restore function to damaged or diseased neuronal circuits in spinal cord and striatum using tissue culture, molecular and cell biological approaches; toxic, metabolic and transgenic animal models of human neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s; the location of neural circuits underlying different levels of olfactory discrimination in humans using computer-controlled olfactometry and EEG recording; mechanisms of plasticity in the developing visual system, using optical imaging of intrinsic signals and behavioural tests; the transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms that determine the pattern of gene expression in the brain using transgenic and molecular techniques.