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

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.

Being "in the zone": how waking activity controls sleep need

7 April 2021

A new study from the Vyazovskiy group suggests that how and where we spend our time while awake impacts how much we need to sleep - it does not only depend on how long we are awake.

A healthy aorta when compared with an aortic aneursm is significantly narrower and less swollen in appearance.

New target identified to develop treatment for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

30 March 2021

A new study from the Smart group has shed light on a key regulatory step in the initiation and progression of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm by revealing the protective role of a previously little known small protein.

Betina Ip's daughters pictured laughing and holding a copy of Book of the Brain in the park.

Researcher publishes children's book of the brain

4 March 2021

Betina Ip, a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow based in NDCN, formerly a postdoctoral research scientist in DPAG, has written a book for children: The Usborne Book of the Brain and How it Works.

The brains of a male and female fly merged together shows an intertwined network of neurons in roughly the same position, demonstrating that neural activity in each brain is similar yet subtly different.

Same genome, different worlds: How a similar brain causes sexually dimorphic behaviours

27 January 2021

A new paper from the Goodwin group based in DPAG's Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour has shown how males and females are programmed differently in terms of sex.

Seminal fluid in the male accessory gland is full of elliptical lipid-containing microcarriers

New form of gift wrap drives male reproductive success

26 January 2021

The transfer of complex mixtures of signals and nutrients between individuals is a key step in several biologically important events in our lives, such as breastfeeding and sexual intercourse. However, we know relatively little about the ways in which the molecular gifts involved are packaged to ensure their successful delivery to the recipient.

A medical professional wearing a mask and safety gloves prepares COVID-19 Vaccine

Just over half of British Indians would take COVID vaccine

21 January 2021

University of Oxford researchers from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG) and the Department of Psychiatry, in collaboration with The 1928 Institute, have published a major new study on the impact of COVID-19 on the UK’s largest BME population.

Frontal view of a developing mouse heart used in the study

Earliest origins of the forming heart identified

8 January 2021

The earliest known progenitor of the outermost layer of the heart has been characterised for the first time and linked to the development of other critical cell types in the developing heart in a new paper from the Srinivas group led by BHF Immediate Fellow Dr Richard Tyser.

Fluorescent close up of the fly brain showing that a key magnesium transporter dominates the neurons involved in memory.

A clue to how a memory-enhancing pill might work

27 November 2020

Hundreds of dietary supplements have been reported to improve cognitive and emotional function in humans, but few have scientific foundation. A new study from the Waddell group provides fresh insight into how dietary Magnesium supplementation can influence memory performance.

New MRI technique could detect early signs of heart failure in cancer patients following chemotherapy

19 November 2020

New research led by Oxford BHF CRE Intermediate Transition Fellow Dr Kerstin Timm shows that a recently developed imaging technique pioneered by the Tyler Group can detect early metabolic changes in the heart caused by a commonly used chemotherapy drug, which is known to increase risk of heart failure in cancer survivors.

Researchers reveal surprising simplicity behind our ability to hear

23 October 2020

A computational modelling study from the King Group demonstrates that the way sounds are transformed from the ear to the brain’s auditory cortex may be simpler than expected. These findings not only highlight the value of computational modelling for determining the principles underlying neural processing, but could also be useful for improving treatments for patients with hearing loss.

Damaged mitochondria are shown to scale in small areas within the centre and edges of a large mass of healthy mitochondria.

New insights into mitochondria quality control could hold the key to treating metabolic disorders

21 October 2020

The Zaccolo Group has identified a new mechanism that regulates mitochondria quality control, a process that is crucial to maintaining healthy cells and preventing disease.

15 fruit fly brains in a colourful grid design

‘Junk’ DNA could be rewiring our brains

16 October 2020

A new study by Waddell Group Neuroscientists at the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour shows that mobile genetic elements that were active in the genomes of our ancestors could be closely linked to important functions in our brain and might help diversify our behaviour, cognition and emotions.

Overlaid silhouettes of adult, adolescent, infant and baby craniums, highlighting neuronal circuits in their brains.

The transient blueprint of the brain

16 October 2020

Transient neurones match the spontaneous and sensory driven activities to shape cortical circuits: a landmark collaborative review published in Science from Professor Zoltán Molnár, Professor Patrick Kanold and Professor Heiko Luhmann.

Striatal immunofluorescence signals for astrocyte marker S100β and neuronal marker NeuN

Sites of early dysfunction in Parkinson's identified

2 October 2020

A new collaborative study from the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre led by Prof Stephanie Cragg and Dr Bradley Roberts has revealed that GABA transporters on astrocytes, the brain's lesser known yet critically important cells, support dopamine release and are sites of early dysfunction in parkinsonism.