News — Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG)

Professor Zoltán Molnár’s Einstein Visiting Fellowship at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin renewed

11 January 2024

New Paper on Layer 6b published by Professor Zoltan Molnar and colleagues in Neuron

15 December 2023

Professor Zoltan Molnar has collaborated with colleagues on a new paper in Neuron.

The three speakers from DPAG (from left to right: Professor Zoltan Molnar, Dr Auguste Vadisiute, Dr Fernando Messore) with the two main organisers and chairs of the meeting: Professor Belinda Lennox (Department of Psychiatry) and Professor Kevin Talbot (Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences).

Brain Health Innovation Summit

29 November 2023

Where expertise meets innovation: a taskforce driving brain health research

Zoltan Molnar pictured with Professor Ana Namburete (Department of Computer Science)

First digital atlas of human fetal brain development published

1 November 2023

The first digital atlas showing how the human brain develops in the womb has been published by a global research team led by the University of Oxford.

Oxford researchers make first step in engineering human cortical columns for brain repair

25 October 2023

A collaborative team of DPAG, Chemistry and Oxford Martin School (OMS) researchers have achieved the first step to printing the 6 distinct layers of the cerebral cortex as part of a landmark project seeking to repair brain damage by transplanting replicated ‘pre-organised’ printed neural tissue.

Exploring the importance of early brain development

12 July 2023

Mental health is not written in the stars – but some conditions can be determined even before birth and the origins of some vulnerabilities may lie in the first few months of life, says Professor Zoltán Molnár. Part of the University of Oxford's 'Brain and mental health' campaign.

Auguste Vadisiute returns to DPAG to shed light on how immune cells interact with the developing neuronal network

5 April 2023

Dr Auguste Vadisiute has been awarded a St John’s College Research Centre Grant to study the 'Cellular and Molecular Interactions between Neurons and Microglia in Normal and Altered Cerebral Cortical Development'.

New BBSRC grant to further our insights into how the cortex controls sleep

15 December 2022

Professor of Sleep Physiology Vladyslav Vyazovskiy and Professor of Developmental Neuroscience Zoltán Molnár have been awarded a Project Grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) for “Brain mechanisms of sleep: top-down or bottom-up?”

Collaborative MRC grant paves the way to new therapeutic targets for stress and anxiety disorders

25 October 2022

Dr Armin Lak, Associate Professor Ed Mann and Professor Zoltán Molnár have been awarded a £733K Project Grant from the Medical Research Council on “Orexinergic projections to neocortex: potential role in arousal, stress and anxiety-related disorders”.

How desk jobs alter your brain – and why they’re so tiring

20 October 2022

A fascinating new article on The Conversation website by DPAG's Professor Zoltán Molnár and Professor Tamas Horvath from Yale University.

Zoltán Molnár honoured by the Royal Society of Biology

4 October 2022

Congratulations are in order to Professor Zoltán Molnár on being elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.

Zoltán Molnár delivers Keynote Lecture at first-of-its-kind Anatomical conference

21 September 2022

Professor Zoltán Molnár delivers the first Keynote Lecture at the 116th Annual Meeting of the Anatomische Gesellschaft, which this year is held as a Joint Meeting with the Anatomical Society for the first time.

DPAG launches “Body, Brain, Behavior: Three Views and a Conversation” in Oxford

8 April 2022

The Oxford Book Launch 'Body Brain Behavior - The Need For Conversations' brought together three world leading scientist authors, Professor Zoltán Molnár and Yale Professors Tamas Horvath and Joy Hirsch, with Oxford's neuroscience community on Thursday 7 April 2022.

The corticofugal projections from layers 5, 6a, and 6b have distinct relationships to first order (also called relay) nuclei and higher-order (also called association) nuclei of the thalamus. Only the first-order thalamic nuclei receive direct input from the sensory periphery. The higher order thalamic nuclei receive their input from the cortex and relay this back to other cortical areas, providing a route for trans thalamic cortico-cortical communication. Projections from cortical layer 6a provide abundant inputs to all thalamic nuclei and modulate how sensory information is relayed to the cortex. Layer 5 usually provides input to higher-order thalamic nuclei, via axon collaterals of subcortical projections targeting the superior colliculus and spinal cord, among others. These are powerful and large, feed-forward “driver” inputs for relay to other cortical areas. My laboratory discovered that a subgroup of layer 6b neurons (Drd1a-Cre line) preferentially target posterior thalamic nucleus, lateral posterior nucleus of thalamus, and other higher-order and midline thalamic nuclei in the ipsi- and contralateral thalamus, as well as frontal and lateral association cortices. Their axons do not form side branches in (pre)thalamic reticular nucleus. Our work suggests that there is a third type of cortico-thalamic projection in addition to layers 5 and 6a, from layer 6b.

New insights into how the brain rewires after early sensory loss

18 February 2022

A new paper from the Molnár Group has shed light on substantial rewiring of corticothalamic connections that is triggered by early sensory loss during development. The study has identified a new mechanism that significantly rearranges the cortico-thalamo-cortical circuits but has not been considered before in patients with sensory loss for potential therapies.

Winners of DPAG Image Competition announced

21 January 2022

A department-wide image competition has yielded a range of stunning images showcasing the diversity and breadth of DPAG's science. Three prize winners and eight commended pictures are announced.

New book expands the horizons of brain research

17 January 2022

A pioneering book from Professor Zoltán Molnár and Yale Professors Tamas Horvath and Joy Hirsch to be released on 1 February 2022 addresses the fundamental relationship between the body, brain and behaviour.

The cerebral cortex is shown at the top of the brain with the anterior hypothalamus and junction of forebrain and brainstem positioned below at the lower part of the brain.

Cortex may regulate the need for sleep

2 August 2021

Why we sleep, and the processes behind sleep, are amongst the most interesting questions in modern neuroscience. Researchers at the University of Oxford, including DPAG's Molnár and Vyazovskiy group scientists, have now uncovered a new target for sleep investigations within the mammalian brain – the cerebral cortex. The paper, first authored by Dr Lukas Krone, was published today in Nature Neuroscience.

Oxford Medical Students shine in National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition 2021

28 July 2021

Preclinical Medicine Undergraduate students Thomas Henning, Ivan Jim Paul and Owen Sweeney have helped Oxford build on last year to achieve the University's best ever performance in The National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition. Preparation for their successful participation was assisted by DPAG's Professor Zoltán Molnár, Dr Michael Gilder and Samuel Snowdon.

New research to radically alter our understanding of synaptic development

14 April 2021

A new study from the Molnár group on the role of regulated synaptic vesicular release in specialised synapse formation has made it to the cover of Cerebral Cortex.

Front cover of An Instance of the Fingerpost with illustrations of a dove, skull and open book, alongside portrait photo of Iain Pears

Iain Pears in conversation with Zoltán Molnár: An insight into Willis era Oxford through writing "An Instance of the Fingerpost"

22 February 2021

Professor Zoltán Molnár talks to author and historian Iain Pears to better understand "a time and place of great intellectual, religious, scientific and political ferment" in which Thomas Willis lived and worked.

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