Bruno Lab

In all mammals including humans, the cerebral cortex mediates the highest levels of cognition, from sensing our world, applying learned knowledge, making decisions, to executing movements. The long-term goal of my research program is to understand how this cognitive machinery is assembled from unique cortical cell types arranged in circuits with specific architectures. Many mental disorders are diseases of these cortical circuits. Evolution’s solutions to cognition are also adaptable to produce intelligent machines in research and medicine. I am working to uncover principles of cortical microcircuitry and computation by exploiting electrophysiology, cellular imaging, cellular manipulation, and computational modeling - all in the context of behaviour. We use the rodent whisker-barrel system for our experiments because mice - one of the world's most heavily used model organisms - rely predominantly on whisker-mediated touch to explore the world. My lab's current focus is to understand the computational and behavioural roles of the different cortical layers.

During my PhD, I investigated how reward is represented among different cell types in the primary motor cortex and how this representation might change with associative learning. Now in Prof Bruno's group, I am interested in the interplay between sensory processing and associative learning. I employ two-photon microscopy in the barrel cortex of mice to investigate cellular and network mechanisms of plasticity during sensory-guided learning.

I am investigating the role of cortical layers in behavior using chronically implanted electrode arrays.

I am dedicated to understanding how we perceive, process, and engage with our environment. Leveraging cutting-edge behavioral techniques combined with neuromodulation, in vivo recording, anatomy, and genetics, my objective is to illuminate the nuances of cortical circuitry.

I am a postdoctoral researcher investigating the role of the thalamocortical loop in generating somatosensory patterns.

I am a postdoctoral researcher investigating the neural mechanisms of learning. My work uses in vivo multiphoton microscopy during behavior.

I am interested in the computational units and circuits found across layers of the neocortex that support the processing of sensory information. To explore this in my DPhil, I am combining in vivo whole-cell patch clamping and computational modelling. Previously, I have graduated from both an undergraduate and a master's neuroscience degree at Oxford. During these degrees, I have worked in the King group studying how animals orient to sounds in space and temporal prediction in the cochlea, and in the Packer group exploring how faithfully action potentials propagate through axons.

I provide scientific, administrative, and technical support to lab members investigating the role of cortical circuitry in behaviour.

In my MSci project, I investigated the correlation between the primary motor cortex and the behavioural state modulation in the barrel cortex of freely moving mice. Currently, I provide scientific, administrative and technical support to the lab team to investigate the cortical microcircuitry underlying behaviours of mice.

I was previously a visiting masters student with the lab. In my PhD project, I investigate the function of the higher-order thalamus. I aim to understand how top-down cortical feedback and bottom-up neuromodulatory signals converge in the thalamus, and how these interactions enable the brain to process sensory information and guide behaviour. MSc Molecular and Translational Neuroscience, University of Ulm, Germany BSc Molecular Biotechnology, University of Heidelberg, Germany