We study the fundamental biology of behaviour and how they are affected by ageing, drugs and diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Down’s, schizophrenia, epilepsy and neuropathies. 

Research Questions
1) Circadian rhythms and clock neuron excitability. How does light and temperature entrain the clock? How is time of day information communicated through the clock? What is the role of neuronal activity in circadian rhythms? What are the components of the membrane clock and how do they interact with the molecular clock? These are being testing in fly, mouse and computational models of clock neuron excitability.

2) Sleep and electrical activity in the brain. How is sleep regulated by circuits in the brain? What is the role of synaptic transmission and homeostasis in sleep? Which ion channels and receptors mediate sleep neuron electrophysiology and regulate sleep? Can sleep be artificially enhanced or suppressed?

3) How is neuronal excitability, circadian rhythms, sleep, memory and movement affected by mental health, ageing, drugs and diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Down’s and schizophrenia. Can novel mechanisms be identified and lead to new drugs? We test new dementia drugs in our preclinical models. Can enhanced sleep delay Alzheimer pathology and improved rhythms and sleep promote mental health.

4) The role of ion channel, tuberous sclerosis complex and novel genes in epilepsy. Developing new animal and computational models of epilepsy, identifying new mechanisms and testing new anti-epileptics in fly, in silico and human epileptic brain tissue. Matching patient genotype to best treatment, patient genotyping to develop novel treatments. Helping develop better predictors of seizures to facilitate novel anti-seizure devices. 

5) What effects do insecticides have on insect neuronal excitability, circadian rhythms, sleep, memory and movement.