Connectomics across sexes, species and states

About the project

About the Project Neuroscience in the fly and beyond is being transformed by the availability of connectomes, synaptic resolution wiring diagrams. We have played leading roles in two large collaborations that have recently generated and analysed separate (female) brain and (male) nerve cord connectomes for the fly. Furthermore, we have now completed a male CNS connectome (brain and nerve cord together). This is enabling comparative connectomics, allowing us to identify sex differences across the brain. We are now expanding this comparative work to understand brain evolution across species including other Drosophilids and the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes . In D. melanogaster , we are also developing new approaches to overlay molecular information about neurons onto the connectome using computational and experimental approaches including deep single cell transcriptomics and expansion microscopy. Together, these resources offer rich opportunities to understand the circuit basis of behaviour. We are investigating the circuit logic of innate behaviours, especially sexually dimorphic behaviours dependent on pheromones. We are also interested in how learned behaviours interact with and modify innate behavioural responses. Finally, we are following the transformations from sensory input, multimodal integration to descending control of motor behaviour. We have active projects in each of these areas and many new avenues are opening up. We encourage any student fascinated by the synaptic, neuronal and network basis of behaviour to apply. This includes not just biologists and neuroscientists but also computer scientists, engineers and physicists.

Research areas