Goodwin Group
- +44 (0)1865 272454
- stephen.goodwin@cncb.ox.ac.uk
- http://www.cncb.ox.ac.uk/people/stephen-goodwin/
Genetic Dissection of Sexual Behaviour
We use Drosophila courtship behaviour to study how sex-specific neural circuitry and behaviours are established during development by the action of complex networks of genes. Our studies focus on two pivotal transcription factors of the sex-determination hierarchy, fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx), that act together to specify and configure both the anatomy and physiology of sex-specific neural circuitry. Ultimately we aim to understand how activity in functioning dimorphic neural circuits gives rise to a different sex-specific behavioural repertoire in the male and female fly. Our work has provided fundamental and original insight into how genetically determined variation in the structure and function of neural circuits gives rise to sex-specific differences in behaviour and into the molecular mechanisms that underpin this variation.
We are part of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour along with the groups of Rui Ponte Costa, Gero Miesenböck and Scott Waddell.
funding
In the News
Lab News
Two CNCB researchers win best talk prizes at European Drosophila Neurobiology Conference in Cologne
New research reveals how development and sex shape the brain
Same genome, different worlds: How a similar brain causes sexually dimorphic behaviours
Nervous system cells defined in unprecedented-detail
Welcome Trust
A postcoital switch: mapping the changing behaviours in the female fruit fly's mind
Sex on the brain: 'Doublesex' gene key to determining fruit fly gender
Stephen receives Welcome Trust Senior Investigator Award
Current Biology
Stephen Goodwin's Q&A Current Biology
New York Times
Female fruit flies like one mate, or his brother
The Royal Society
The ‘in-law effect’ – male fruit flies sleep around but females keep it in the family
German Public Radio (Deutschlandfunk)
Der Sexschalter von Drosophilia
ABC Radio National Australia
The Science Show interviewed by Robyn Williams - Sex-specific behaviour revealed by fruit flies
Our team
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Stephen Goodwin
Professor of Neurogenetics
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Megan Neville
Departmental Lecturer
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Tetsuya Nojima
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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Faredin Alejevski
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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Olivia McGinnis
Doctoral Student in Neuroscience
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Alexander Rawnsley
DPhil Student
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Nabarun Nandy
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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Aaron Munro Allen
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
DPAG News
Same genome, different worlds: How a similar brain causes sexually dimorphic behaviours
27 Jan, 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.
Nervous system cells defined in unprecedented detail
22 May, 2020
The collaborating groups of Professor Stephen Goodwin and Professor Scott Waddell based in The Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (CNCB) are shedding new light on what precisely constitutes a neuronal cell type.
Postdoctoral researchers and students shine at Neuroscience Theme Day
6 Jun, 2019
The talks given by Postdoctoral Research Scientists and Graduate Students highlighted the full range of research in DPAG, spanning molecular and cellular neuroscience all the way to systems neuroscience.