The laboratory is interested in synaptic mechanisms and, in particular, synaptic plasticity in the mammalian central nervous system. Synaptic plasticity is the process by which synapses alter their efficiency and this property is used by the nervous system to store information. Synaptic plasticity is therefore a fundamental property of the brain involved in the development of the nervous system, learning & memory and other cognitive processes. Dysfunction of synaptic plastic processes is believed to be involved in various psychiatric and neurological disorders, including epilepsy and ischaemic brain injury.

We are particularly interested in the phenomena of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), which are forms of synaptic plasticity exhibited by many different classes of synapse in the brain.

Most of our work focuses on synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus, a brain area important for learning and memory. Within the hippocampus we work on two main synapses, the Schaffer collateral / commissural projection from CA3 to CA1 neurons and the mossy fibre projection from dentate granule cells to CA3 neurons.

Our work is highly interdisciplinary. We use a range of electrophysiological (e.g., extracellular field potential, intracellular, whole-cell somatic and dendritic patch-clamp recording), pharmacological, molecular biological and imaging techniques (single and multi-photon confocal microscopy) to investigate the role of glutamate (i.e., AMPA, kainate, NMDA and mGlu) receptors and associated signalling molecules (e.g., Ca2+ and protein kinases) in hippocampal synaptic plasticity. Our previous work provided the first evidence that activation of glutamate receptors is a trigger for plasticity to occur (e.g., NMDA receptors as triggers for LTP at CA3 - CA1 synapses, kainate receptors as triggers for LTP at mossy fibre synapses, mGlu receptors as triggers for LTD) and that AMPA receptors are one target for modification during synaptic plasticity.

We enjoy numerous collaborations both within the MRC Centre (with the groups of Bashir, Bortolotto Henley, Isaac, Jane, Marrion, Molnar) and with scientists from other academic and industrial institutions.