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

Researchers discover novel form of adaptation in the auditory system

21 June 2022

DPAG’s auditory neuroscience researchers have found that the auditory system adapts to the changing acoustics of reverberant environments by temporally shifting the inhibitory tuning of cortical neurons to remove reverberation.

A male individual breathes into a scientific sensor device.

Collaborative team driven by DPAG and Chemistry awarded RSC Horizon Prize

7 June 2022

The Molecular Flow Sensor Team, with collaborating members principally from DPAG’s Robbins and Talbot groups and the Department of Chemistry, has been named the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) Analytical Division Horizon Prize for the development of a new technology for measuring lung function.

REF 2021 results

12 May 2022

Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre awarded £3.8 million to reveal the role of calcium in Parkinson’s

29 April 2022

A collaborative research team led by the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre (OPDC) has been awarded a £3.8 million Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award to study the function of calcium in dopamine neurons, and how this is plays a role in Parkinson’s. Their research will help explain how and why dopamine neurons are vulnerable in the disease and look at how they may be preserved.

Map of nuclear and cytoplasmic pH recorded in neonatal cardiac cells incubated in various medium pH: 6.24, 6.49, 6.80. 6.98, 7.10 and 7.45. This is colour coded on a scale from 6.1 - 7.6 pH.

The effect of nuclear pH on cardiac gene expression

13 April 2022

Research led by Dr Alzbeta Hulikova and Professor Pawel Swietach has, for the first time, described the potential regulation of nuclear acid-base chemistry in neonatal and adult cardiomyocytes, and explained its relevance in the context of heart physiology and pathology.

A role of sleep in tinnitus identified for the first time

8 April 2022

Phantom percepts, such as subjective tinnitus, are driven by fundamental changes in spontaneous brain activity. Sleep is a natural example of major shifts in spontaneous brain activity and perceptual state, suggesting an interaction between sleep and tinnitus that has so far been little considered. In a new collaborative review article from DPAG’s auditory and sleep neuroscientists, tinnitus and sleep research is brought together for the first time, and, in conclusion, they propose a fundamental relationship between natural brain dynamics and the expression and pathogenesis of tinnitus.

An unexpected role for the cell’s largest membrane network

7 April 2022

A new Klemm Lab-led paper has uncovered a new mechanism involving the endoplasmic reticulum that is critical to the organisation and position of the microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton, which ultimately dictates the shape and function of our body’s cells.

A representative T2-weighted image of a healthy human brain (red arrows indicate the claustrum) compared with a T2-weighted image showing a lesion reported as affecting the claustrum.

Little understood brain region linked to how we perceive pain

28 March 2022

A new DPAG-led review paper, published in the journal Brain, has shown that a poorly understood region of the brain called the claustrum may play an important role in how we experience pain.

Side by side pancreatic islets demonstrating prevalence of glucagon in normal animals and heavily reduced glucagon when ACC1 is knocked out.

New insights into little understood regulator of blood sugar levels

25 March 2022

A new Novo Nordisk project paper has uncovered the role of ACC1 enzyme in the regulation of glucagon secretion for the first time. This raises the prospect of a potential new therapeutic target in the context of type 2 diabetes and metabolic disorders characterised by hyperglycaemia.

Armin Lak set to reveal neural code for learning under uncertainty with ERC Starting Grant

18 March 2022

Congratulations are in order for Sir Henry Dale Fellow Dr Armin Lak who has been awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council. His funded project will investigate the neural circuits for learning under perceptual uncertainty.

Cy5.5-conjugated pH-(low)-insertion peptide (pHLIP, red) to label acidic tumour regions and Hoechst-33342 (blue) to label cell nuclei in the fresh frozen tumor sections of wild-type SW1222 xenografts.

New gene target identified to prevent tumour growth under acidity

11 March 2022

A new paper led by Dr Johanna Michl and Professor Pawel Swietach from DPAG’s Swietach Group has identified a new gene that allows cancer cells to survive in the typically acidic microenvironment of a malignant tumour. They have discovered drugs that inhibit the gene in other medical conditions also selectively kill cancer cells at acidic pH, without damaging healthy tissue. This defines a novel strategy for targeting acidic tumour regions.

A striatal spiny projection neuron labelled with neurobiotin (scale bar 20 µm; inset 2 µm).

New insights into the role of dopamine in reinforcement learning

11 March 2022

A new study from Dr Yanfeng Zhang has uncovered the first evidence that dopamine-dependent long-term potentiation is also gated by the pause of striatal cholinergic interneurons and the depolarisation of the striatal spiny projection neurons. This discovery overturns previous ideas that the phasic dopamine release is the only factor gate corticostriatal synaptic plasticity, thus changing our understanding of dopamine functions in reinforcement learning.

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.

London Marathon to fund De Val and Vieira Lab research as two of eight handpicked BHF projects

14 February 2022

Two projects aimed at tackling heart failure led by Associate Professor Sarah De Val and Dr Joaquim Vieira are to be funded by the 2022 TCS London Marathon with the British Heart Foundation as its Charity of the Year. The BHF’s runners, who are raising £3 million in funding, will include De Val Lab postdoctoral researcher Dr Alice Neal.

Filipa Simões set to advance pro-regeneration heart therapies

1 February 2022

Congratulations to Dr Filipa Simões who has been awarded a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship. She will investigate how immune cells called macrophages facilitate long-lasting heart regeneration in the zebrafish and how this could be harnessed for the human heart.

Increased brighter areas of gas activity can be seen on the healthy scan, whereas there are more 'dark' areas suggesting impaired gas activity on the patient scan.

Hidden lung damage found in Long Covid patients with breathlessness

31 January 2022

A major collaborative study, in which DPAG’s Dr James Grist plays a key role, involving teams in the universities of Oxford, Sheffield, Cardiff and Manchester, has identified abnormalities in the lungs of Long Covid patients who are experiencing breathlessness. Researchers are using a novel xenon gas scanning method to locate damaged areas that cannot be detected by routine scans.

15 fruit fly brains in a colourful grid design

Christoph Treiber awarded ERC Starting Grant to investigate the origins of behavioural diversity

10 January 2022

Congratulations are in order for postdoctoral research scientist Dr Christoph Treiber who has been awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council. His funded project will investigate the genetic components that may contribute to diversity of brain function and behaviour.

Switch with a spring: a new model for sleep regulation

16 December 2021

New collaborative research led by the Vyazovskiy Group has shed new light on the role of the hypothalamus in the transition between sleep and wake states.

Oxford-led research maps milestone stage of human development for the first time

18 November 2021

Scientists have shed light on an important stage of early embryonic development that has never been fully mapped out in humans before.

Mapping uncharted networks in the progression of Parkinson’s

26 October 2021

A major new $9 million project funded by the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative will map the original circuits vulnerable to Parkinson’s on an unprecedented scale. The project is a collaboration between core investigators Stephanie Cragg, Richard Wade-Martins, and Peter Magill at Oxford, Mark Howe at Boston University and Dinos Meletis at the Karolinska Institutet, as well as collaborators Yulong Li at Peking University and Michael Lin at Stanford University.

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