Deciphering how neuronal brain circuits control behaviour represents a key task in modern neuroscience. A fundamental problem is to understand how brains integrate present sensory stimuli, past experience, and behavioural options. We aim at understanding how adaptive behaviour is organized through the properties of single neurons, their synapses, and the circuits the neurons are part of. A combination of genetic tools employing cell-specific transgene expression, e.g., opto- and thermogenetics, splitGFP reconstitution across cells, or functional optical imaging, advances the analysis of brains as integrated systems for the control of behaviour. For such an endeavour, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is particularly suitable. It combines brain simplicity, behavioural richness, and experimental accessibility. We use associative olfactory conditioning paradigms to analyze how odour information is represented in the brain and how odour representations are associated with behavioural relevance through learning. As a model system of how a central brain structure brings about such adaptive behaviour, our research focuses on the mushroom body of the Drosophila central brain. The mushroom body of Drosophila is an evolutionary ancient third-order brain structure, comprising but ~2200 intrinsic neurons. It integrates input from multiple sensory modalities with experience-dependent modulation through multiple biogenic amines and neuropeptides. Its output then is integrated with innate behavioural tendencies to bring about adaptive behaviour. The mushroom body features structural, functional, or cellular similarity with several distinct mammalian brain structures. Our recent research on the function of the mushroom body will be summarized and discussed as a paradigmatic case of how a brain operates.

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) with prion-like domains (PrLDs) phase transition to functional liquids, which can mature into aberrant hydrogels composed of pathological fibrils that underpin fatal neurodegenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Several nuclear RBPs with PrLDs including TDP-43, FUS, hnRNPA1, and hnRNPA2 mislocalize to cytoplasmic inclusions in ALS and FTD and mutations in their PrLDs can accelerate fibrillization and cause disease. Here, I will discuss our latest endeavors to uncover and engineer therapeutic protein disaggregases to reverse these aberrant phase transitions and restore functional RBPs to the nucleus to counter ALS and FTD disease phenotypes.

Our goal is to understand how neuronal circuits coordinate behaviours extending to whole organ systems or to the entire body. Achieving this at cellular resolution in an entire nervous system is possible by studying small animals amenable to genetic and other manipulations. We are actively developing the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii as a new system for circuit neuroscience. We use whole-body connectomics, neuronal activity imaging, and behavioural analysis to understand the circuit bases of behaviour in fully mapped, stereotypical circuits. Genome editing and transgenic access to single neurons allow us to link molecular function to network activity and behaviour. I will present recent results on the integration of phototactic and UV-avoidance responses and on a hydrodynamic startle behaviour.

How is gene expression quantitatively regulated? Through the study of how plants perceive and respond to winter, we have discovered that Arabidopsis FLC is an excellent system in which to mechanistically dissect how non-coding transcription and chromatin structure quantitatively regulate gene expression. In the warm, an antisense-mediated chromatin mechanism coordinately influences transcriptional initiation and elongation. With increasing cold exposure, FLC is epigenetically silenced through a conserved Polycomb switching mechanism. The talk will describe our latest understanding of this regulation and how it has been modulated during adaptation.

The Oxford University Society for Synthetic Biology (SynBio.Oxford) is pleased to be hosting a talk by Prof Stefan Howorka (University College London). Prof Howorka is one of the UK's leading synthetic biologists, an expert on the engineering of artificial DNA nanopores and the synthesis of nucleic acid probes. Admission is free, and more details about Prof Howorka's work can be found at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/chemistry/people/stefan-howorka

Four of the five major sensory systems (vision, olfaction, somatosensation, and audition) are thought to use different but partially overlapping sets of neurons to form unique representations of vast numbers of stimuli. Gustation is considered an exception, by representing only small numbers of basic taste categories. Using new methods for delivering tastant chemicals and making electrophysiological recordings from the gustatory system of the moth Manduca sexta, we found that chemical-specific information is initially encoded in the population of gustatory receptor neurons as broadly distributed spatiotemporal patterns of activity, dramatically integrated and temporally transformed as it propagates to monosynaptically connected second-order neurons, and observed in tastant-specific behavior. Our results suggest that the gustatory system, rather than constructing basic taste categories, uses a spatiotemporal population code to generate unique neural representations of individual tastant chemicals.

The Oxford University Society for Synthetic Biology (SynBio.Oxford) is pleased to be hosting a talk by Dr Ross Kettleborough (Field Applications Specialist, Twist Bioscience). Dr Kettleborough will be discussing the revolution in DNA synthesis that Twist is driving through their ground-breaking chip technologies. Admission is free, and more details about Twist Bioscience can be found at: https://twistbioscience.com/

The Oxford University Society for Synthetic Biology (SynBio.Oxford) is pleased to be hosting a talk by Dr Max Ryadnov (Principal Research Scientist, National Physical Laboratory). Dr Ryadnov as a distinguished track record of interdisciplinary research and is currently working in a range of areas including synthetic biomaterials, antimicrobial agent discovery and regenerative biology. Admission is free, and more details about Dr Ryadnov can be found at: http://www.npl.co.uk/biotechnology/research/cbm/people/max-ryadnov

The Oxford University Society for Synthetic Biology (SynBio.Oxford) is pleased to be hosting a talk by Dr Piers Millet (Senior Research Fellow, Future of Humanity Institute). Dr Millet has worked for a large number of international organisations including the UN as a world leading expert on issues of biosecurity and the biological weapons convention. He is also the current co-chair of the iGEM competition’s Safety Committee which oversees the security and safety of the work being done by participating teams around the world. Admission is free, and more details about Dr Millett can be found at: https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/team/piers-millett/