Lmst

We’re hiring a Group Leader!

Join us to lead a transformative initiative in human systems neuroscience.

Find out more and apply ⤵️

https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/content/current-vacancies

“We're hiring! This is a unique opportunity to translate our understanding of neural computation - from circuit-level mechanisms to computational principles - into the human brain, through the establishment of cutting-edge human neural recording capabilities with collaborators in London and abroad.”

Congratulations to Dr Ole Christian Sylte on receiving a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship! 🎉

Ole will investigate how the brain transforms spatial knowledge into goal-directed actions.

“I'm excited to start this fellowship at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, studying how the brain turns knowledge of where you are into decisions about where to go next.” – Dr Ole Christian Sylte

Studies using fruit flies by University of Oxford researchers Dr Raffaele Sarnataro & Dr Peter Hasenhuetl, are providing new insights into how sleep is controlled.

As two winners of the Emerging Neuroscientist Seminar Series 2025, they recently spoke at SWC ⤵️

https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/blog/what-fruit-flies-are-teaching-us-about-need-sleep

Maximum intensity projection of a fly midbrain where dorsal fan-shaped body neurons have their mitochondria labelled green, overlaid with ‘SWC Speaker Series’

📢 We’re hiring!

We’re looking for a Scientific Instrument Maker to join our expert team carrying out highly skilled precision work in the design, development, construction, and validation of scientific instruments.

⏰ Apply by 22 Feb: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/search-ucl-jobs/details?jobId=41289&jobTitle=Scientific+Instrument+Maker

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre boosted:

New blogpost outlining our work with the Akrami lab at @SWC_Neuro
to build light-microscopy based atlases of the rat brain.

https://brainglobe.info/blog/swc-female-rat-atlas

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre boosted:

Applications to our summer school have been extended for two weeks!

If you want to learn about open-source tools for neuroscience, please join us in London this August.

Deadline Feb 15th.

Full details: https://neuroinformatics.dev/open-software-summer-school

An overview of the Open Software Summer School 2026 schedule. There are two tracks in the first week, "Animals in Motion" and "Large Array Data". "BrainGlobe" and "Extracellular Electrophysiology" will be run in the second week.

Learning to read is a key stage in education that deeply changes the brain.

Professor Stanislas Dehaene, Chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology at the Collège de France, discusses the neuroscience of reading at our Annual Lecture.

⤵️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqHUkMmeOk8

New protocol from SWC reduces off-target effects in optogenetics 🚥

Light can unintentionally activate retinal cells, complicating results. The protocol minimises light leakage and verifies off-target activity is reduced.

➡️Read the paper in STAR Protocols: https://star-protocols.cell.com/protocols/4708

➡️For full details of the method and its use, check out the paper in iScience: https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(24)02377-0

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre boosted:

📢 Applications open on 19 Jan for the 7-week #Mathematics #SummerSchool in London.

You will develop the maths skills and intuition necessary to enter the #TheoreticalNeuroscience & #MachineLearning field.

ℹ️ Find out more & register for the information webinar 👉 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/life-sciences/gatsby/study-and-work/gatsby-bridging-programme

Applications for 2026 entry to the Gatsby Bridging Programme (7-week maths summer school) will open on 19 Jan and close on 16 Feb. Designed for students who wish to pursue a postgrad research degree in theoretical neuroscience or foundational machine learning but whose degree programme lacks a strong maths focus. Applications from students in underrepresented groups in STEM strongly encouraged. A small number of bursaries available.
Register for the information webinar on 23 Jan.

New work from @jerlich (SWC) & Evgeniya Lukinova (University of Nottingham), now in Frontiers in Psychology, links cortisol measures to reduced willingness to wait for larger rewards, but only when participants actually experienced the delay.

Paper ⬇️
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1565274/full?utm_source=F-NTF&utm_medium=EMLX&utm_campaign=PRD_FEOPS_20170000_ARTICLE

Blog ⬇️
https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/blog/under-pressure-does-everyday-stress-affect-financial-decisions

New, fully automated, home-cage-based novel object recognition (NOR) test improves reliability and animal welfare.

Published in Cell Reports Methods from SWC, UKDRI at UCL and the University of Cambridge: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-methods/fulltext/S2667-2375(25)00326-1

Blog: https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/blog/home-sweet-home-automating-novel-object-recognition

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre boosted:

Three weeks left to apply for the Neuroinformatics Unit Open Software Summer School, August 17-28 2026 in London, UK!

Bringing together researchers and open source developers of ephys, behaviour and image analysis tools.

https://neuroinformatics.dev/open-software-summer-school

Deadline January 31st. Apply now!

Dr @dimokaramanlis , University of Geneva, recently spoke at SWC as a winner of the Emerging Neuroscientists Seminar Series.

He discussed his work on social decision-making in mice.

Read more in our latest Q&A ⤵️

https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/qa/decoding-emotion

Remembering Adam Kampff, a dear friend, inspirational teacher, and a remarkable human being. He dedicated his life to broadening scientific education and demystifying modern technology to young people around the world.

https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/research-news/remembering-adam-kampff-1979-2025

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre boosted:

RE: https://mastodon.online/@neuroinformatics/115643481413121555

Please join us in London August 24-28 2026 for a week long BrainGlobe course.

We will teach you how to use the tools and how to contribute back to the wider BrainGlobe ecosystem.

Apply now!

https://neuroinformatics.dev/open-software-summer-school

A new preprint from SWC reveals the brain selects the most cost-efficient short-term memory strategy depending on task demands.

Preprint ⤵️
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.28.691186v1

Blog ⤵️
https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/blog/new-findings-rewrite-understanding-short-term-memory

With Jingjie Li, Ariel Xu, Chaofei Bao, Albert Albesa-González, Liujunli Li, Claudia Clopath and @jerlich

An illustration of electrophysiological recording traces flowing into neural manifolds that support short-term memory

The science of reading: From neuroscience to the classroom

Join us on 2 Dec at 12pm for this year’s SWC Lecture, with Professor Stanislas Dehaene, Chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology, Collège de France

Free and open to all. Register here:
https://eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-swc-lecture-professor-stanislas-dehaene-tickets-1953052315049?aff=oddtdtcreator

In a recent SWC Seminar, Dr Elif Engin (Harvard University) shared insights from her latest work on GABA-A receptors.

In our new Q&A, she expands on her research and what it could mean for understanding and treating mood and anxiety disorders. ⤵️

https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/qa/balancing-brain-gaba-receptors-mood-and-cognition

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