Entomopathogenic nematodes

What are you focusing on at the moment? I am still carrying on with my research into the molecular mechanisms of memory, currently focusing on the link between CaMKII and AMPA receptors during memory consolidation. But two years ago, funded by the BBSRC, we embarked on an exciting new project, investigating the link between decision-making and learning in Lymnaea. This project uses much less molecular analysis than my previous projects, instead relying on some powerful new neurophysiological methods, such as multi-electrode array (MEA) recording and dynamic clamp as well as classical intracellular microelectrophysiology, a technique I first learned when I was still working on my PhD project in Hungary. The big scientific question we are focusing on at the moment is how such complex behavioural phenomena as decision-making are generated at the level of precisely defined and interacting neural networks and how they are shaped by learning.