Neural circuit basis of olfactory perception in Drosophila
Lead Research Organisation:
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Abstract
The brain is a network of interconnected neurons; information processing depends on exactly which neurons are connected and the strength and sign of these connections. A major goal of neuroscience is to understand the principles governing information processing in order to understand how human and animal brains think in health and disease.|Our goal is to understand how smell turns into behaviour. The sensory neurons that detect smells are connected to brain areas that trigger behaviours or form memories by only one level of processing; this is much more direct than vision.|We are studying how smell is processed in fruit fly brains. Although their brains are smaller and simpler, there are many organisational similarities to vertebrates. One key advantage is that we can use genetics to identify the same neurons in the brains of different experimental animals. We have developed strategies to record electrically from identified neurons as flies smell different odours. We are also developing wiring diagrams that describe how neurons are connected at successive levels of processing. By putting this information together we hope to understand the transition from sensation to action in this small brain.
Technical Summary
The long-term motivation of our work is to understand how neural circuits process sensory information and transform this into behaviour. We are particularly interested in behaviours that are encoded in the genome through the specification of the development and function of neural circuits. We use the olfactory system of the fruit fly as a model system. We have selected olfaction because it is a very shallow sensory system as few as 2 synapses separate the sensory neurons from brain structures involved in memory and behaviour. Drosophila is a very attractive model because of the unique combination of molecular genetics, favourable scale and complexity and (recently) electrophysiological accessibility.|Our strategy is to combine high-resolution neuroanatomy down to the level of single identified neurons with targeted in vivo neurophysiology. Olfactory receptor neurons project axons to form a highly stereotyped olfactory map in the first olfactory centre in the brain, the antennal lobe. Second order neurons, called projection neurons, relay this information to two higher olfactory centres, the lateral horn and the mushroom body. The mushroom body is required for olfactory learning but apparently dispensable for innate olfactory behaviour. We are therefore focussing our efforts on the lateral horn. We hypothesise that this poorly characterised brain centre is where odour information starts to be transformed into a representation appropriate to instruct behaviour.|Our mapping efforts will involve the use of genetic single cell labelling and image registration to combine data from multiple brains, an approach we have recently used to provide the first detailed description of the olfactory input to the lateral horn. We will also test and pursue higher resolution optical and electron microscopy techniques that will allow us to identify synaptically coupled neurons.|We will study odour coding by developing methods to present many odour stimuli to flies. We will record activity by targeted whole cell patch clamp of genetically labelled cell types. This technique gives a very high-resolution view of the spiking and subthreshold activity of individual neurons. We will complement this approach with the use of multiphoton calcium imaging to study more neurons simultaneously (with lower resolution of their activity).|We will also study the interaction between presynaptic projection neurons and postsynaptic neurons of the lateral horn by the use of paired recordings or photostimulation of defined projection neurons.|These experiments will help us to understand the principles of information transfer and transformation at a key stage of the olfactory pathway and more generally the mechanism by which raw sensory information is processed into appropriate behavioural responses.
Publications

Auer TO
(2020)
Olfactory receptor and circuit evolution promote host specialization.
in Nature

Bates AS
(2019)
Neuronal cell types in the fly: single-cell anatomy meets single-cell genomics.
in Current opinion in neurobiology

Brown KM
(2011)
The DIADEM data sets: representative light microscopy images of neuronal morphology to advance automation of digital reconstructions.
in Neuroinformatics

Buhmann J
(2021)
Automatic detection of synaptic partners in a whole-brain Drosophila electron microscopy data set
in Nature Methods

Cachero S
(2020)
BAcTrace, a tool for retrograde tracing of neuronal circuits in Drosophila.
in Nature methods

Cachero S
(2011)
Double brainbow.
in Nature methods

Cachero S
(2010)
Sexual dimorphism in the fly brain.
in Current biology : CB

Cachero S
(2008)
Drosophila olfaction: the end of stereotypy?
in Neuron

Chin SG
(2018)
Olfactory Neurons and Brain Centers Directing Oviposition Decisions in Drosophila.
in Cell reports
Description | Biomedical Resource |
Amount | £24,214 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 105023/B/14/Z |
Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2014 |
End | 09/2017 |
Description | Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship - Philip Myers |
Amount | € 58,800 (EUR) |
Organisation | Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | Germany |
Start | 07/2019 |
End | 07/2021 |
Description | EMBO Long Term Fellowship (SF) |
Amount | £63,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Molecular Biology Organisation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | Germany |
Start | 01/2011 |
End | 01/2013 |
Description | EMBO Young Investigator Programme |
Amount | € 45,000 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 2468 |
Organisation | European Molecular Biology Organisation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | Germany |
Start | 01/2013 |
End | 12/2015 |
Description | ERC Consolidator Grant |
Amount | € 1,990,791 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 649111 |
Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 06/2015 |
End | 06/2020 |
Description | ERC Grant |
Amount | € 1,537,995 (EUR) |
Funding ID | ERC-2014-CoG-649111 |
Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 06/2015 |
End | 06/2020 |
Description | ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant |
Amount | € 1,750,000 (EUR) |
Funding ID | ERC-2007-StG211089 |
Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 08/2008 |
End | 08/2014 |
Description | Herchel Smith Studentship (AB) |
Amount | £129,147 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2015 |
End | 09/2019 |
Description | Marie Curie Fellowship (DG) |
Amount | € 195,455 (EUR) |
Funding ID | ISCA-IF-2016-748478 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Horizon 2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 08/2018 |
End | 08/2020 |
Description | NeuroNex2: Enabling Identification and Impact of Synaptic Weight in Functional Networks; NSF reference 2014862 |
Amount | £993,430 (GBP) |
Funding ID | MC_EX_MR/T046279/1 |
Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2020 |
End | 07/2023 |
Description | PhD Bursary Award (PH) |
Amount | £19,500 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | Cambridge Home & EU Scholarship Scheme (CHESS) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2012 |
End | 09/2015 |
Description | PhD Fellowship (MD) |
Amount | € 57,600 (EUR) |
Organisation | Boehringer Ingelheim |
Sector | Private |
Country | Germany |
Start | 09/2011 |
End | 09/2014 |
Description | Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (SC) |
Amount | £399,792 (GBP) |
Funding ID | DH120072 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2013 |
End | 09/2018 |
Description | Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship - Erika Dona |
Amount | £250,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 110232/Z/15/Z |
Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2016 |
End | 11/2020 |
Description | Swiss National Foundation (DM) |
Amount | £134,825 (GBP) |
Organisation | Swiss National Science Foundation |
Sector | Public |
Country | Switzerland |
Start | 03/2014 |
End | 06/2016 |
Description | Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award/Cambridge University |
Amount | £160,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 203261/Z/16/Z |
Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2016 |
End | 09/2020 |
Title | Drosophila stocks for ultra fast tissue labelling |
Description | For protein localization studies, enzymes can be fused to proteins in the same way as fluorescent protein tags such as GFP. Tissues can be fixed and exposed to chemical substrates that covalently modify the enzyme tags with fluorescent molecules. This approach avoids problems often associated with detecting fluorescent protein tags with antibodies while providing a fast detection method. |
Type Of Material | Cell line |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Published in Kohl, Ng et al 2014 (PNAS). Already supplied to at least 15 research groups. Now available from the public Drosophila stock centre at Bloomington (see URL) |
URL | http://flystocks.bio.indiana.edu/Browse/misc-browse/chemtag.php |
Title | Viral vectors for ultrafast chemical labelling |
Description | Genetically encoded fluorescent proteins and immunostainings are widely used to detect cellular or sub-cellular structures in thick biological samples. However, each approach suffers from limitations, including low signal and limited spectral flexibility or slow speed, poor penetration and high background, respectively. Here we overcome these limitations by using transgenically expressed chemical tags for rapid, even and low-background labeling of thick biological tissues. We constructed constitutive and Cre-ON AAV and demonstrated their use in mouse brain. Constructs have been deposited at Addgene - we are awaiting final confirmation that they are ready for distribution. |
Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Kohl, Ng et al PNAS paper. Numerous requests from other groups with a variety of applications including studies of neuronal regeneration. |
Title | Contributions to Virtual Fly Brain online database |
Description | We have developed a variety of image processing and analysis that have been used to integrate large public datasets of Drosophila neurobiology, allowing simple online queries and visualisation by the research community. Thus includes image registration and subsequent processing of over 10 Tb of data corresponding to 16,000 individual neurons an 3500 genetic driver lines. All the data are made available through the virtual fly brain website. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | In the last 6 months, the virtualflybrain website has received 4000 unique visitors and 20,000 page views, increases of over 100% on the corresponding period in 2012. The main change on the site in the last 18 months has been the provision of the new data that we processed. |
URL | http://virtualflybrain.org |
Title | Fruitless Neuron Dataset |
Description | A complete, annotated set of 3d confocal images describing the anatomy of neurons expressing the gene fruitless in male and female animals. The full data set is just over 1 Tb and therefore distributed by hard drive to colleagues. A summary data set is available at: flybrain.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/frudata |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2010 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Identified most circuit level sexual dimorphisms in the fly brain. Identified dimorphisms likely to underlie differential responses to male pheromone between male and female flies. |
URL | http://flybrain.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/frudata |
Title | Supplemental data S1 to accompany Marin et al 2020 "Connectomics analysis reveals first, second, and third order thermosensory and hygrosensory neurons in the adult Drosophila brain" |
Description | Neuronal skeletons and meshes. Related to STAR Methods. marin2020-skeletons contains files describing the morphology of each neuron in this study (in FAFB14 space, .swc format). glomeruli_meshes contains the glomerular meshes (in FAFB14 space, .stl format). neuropil_meshes contains the glomerular meshes (in FAFB14 space, .stl format). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://zenodo.org/record/3879032 |
Title | Supplemental data S1 to accompany Marin et al 2020 "Connectomics analysis reveals first, second, and third order thermosensory and hygrosensory neurons in the adult Drosophila brain" |
Description | Neuronal skeletons and meshes. Related to STAR Methods. marin2020-skeletons contains files describing the morphology of each neuron in this study (in FAFB14 space, .swc format). glomeruli_meshes contains the glomerular meshes (in FAFB14 space, .stl format). neuropil_meshes contains the glomerular meshes (in FAFB14 space, .stl format). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://zenodo.org/record/3879033 |
Description | Fruitless Neuron Mapping |
Organisation | Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) |
Country | Austria |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I contributed technical expertise in microscopy and image analysis for a large scale mapping effort of neurons implicated in male behaviour in the fly; data were generated in the lab of Barry Dickson at the IMP Vienna. My lab then carried out a related but distinct set of experiments in Cambridge using different techniques to examine the same neurons; these turned out to be particularly effective at identifying sexual dimorphisms in neuronal morphology. |
Collaborator Contribution | Shared data before publication. |
Impact | 2 papers in Current Biology in 2010 describing experimental work carried out in Cambridge and Vienna respectively. |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | Mapping connections between the larval mushroom body and lateral horn |
Organisation | Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
Department | Janelia Research Campus |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | A visiting student based in my group in Cambridge will trace existing electron microscopy volume data from the Drosophila first instar larva. He will identify pathways of convergence between output neurons of the mushroom body (required for learned olfactory behaviour) and the lateral horn (suspected to be required for innate olfactory behaviour). |
Collaborator Contribution | Provide software infrastrcuture and image data for reconstruction. |
Impact | Started in October 2014 |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Mapping of Ionotropic Receptor Pathways in the fly brain |
Organisation | University of Lausanne |
Department | Center for Integrative Genomics |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We carried out 3d mapping of central neurons that receive input from the ionotropic receptor (IR) olfactory receptor family. This accounts for about 20% of olfactory input channels in the fly. We made two key findings. 1) although IR sensory neurons are initially segregated in the periphery, they are integrated in a higher olfactory processing area called the lateral horn. 2) IR84a sensory neurons, which detect a food-derived aphrodisiac, are very unusual in connecting to a pheromone processing area rather than the general odour processing area in the lateral horn. |
Collaborator Contribution | Identification of a dedicated neural pathway that responds to a food aphrodisiac. This has resulted in our identification of central brain neurons that respond to the same compound; we are now testing if these same neurons also integrate information about fly-derived pheromones detected by other sensory neuron classes. |
Impact | An olfactory receptor for food-derived odours promotes male courtship in Drosophila. Grosjean Y, Rytz R, Farine JP, Abuin L, Cortot J, Jefferis GS, Benton R. Nature. 2011 Sep 28;478(7368):236-40. doi: 10.1038/nature10428. Complementary function and integrated wiring of the evolutionarily distinct Drosophila olfactory subsystems. Silbering AF, Rytz R, Grosjean Y, Abuin L, Ramdya P, Jefferis GS, Benton R. J Neurosci. 2011 Sep 21;31(38):13357-75. |
Start Year | 2009 |
Description | Mapping the Lateral Horn of Drosophila |
Organisation | Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
Department | Janelia Research Campus |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We will collaborate primarily with Gerry Rubin and his laboratory. The proposed research will provide major insights into the structure and function of the lateral horn and its role in innate and learned behaviour. The main output will be a collection of Split Gal4 lines labelling different lateral horn populations. We will provide anatomical expertise and one student will run the screen for new Split Gal4 combinations at Janelia. We will also carry out behavioural analysis of positive lines from the screen. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Rubin lab will advise on the screening of split lines, provide basic lab infrastructure and make new transgenic lines when necessary (100 are already in progress). We will also have access to the FlyLight and FlyCore platforms at Janelia, who will carry out high resolution anatomical imaging and provide support for fly crosses. |
Impact | Project started in October 2014. Have already set up 500 crosses and begun screening. |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | Ultra fast chemical labelling |
Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
Department | MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Generated fly lines and viral constructs for ultra fast chemical labelling in thick tissue |
Collaborator Contribution | Carried out viral experiments in mouse brain to test constructs. We are continuing to develop and test new tools. |
Impact | Kohl, Ng et al PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1411087111 |
Start Year | 2013 |
Title | NBLAST |
Description | Permits rapid, sensitive comparison of neuronal structure and construction of neuron family databases |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | This software has been a major driver for our own research. A preprint is already described below. |
URL | http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/006346 |
Title | NeuroAnatomy Toolbox (nat) |
Description | The NeuroAnatomy Toolbox an R package for visualisation and analysis of biological image data, especially tracings of single neurons. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | On top of this we have built a second package nat.nblast, which implements our NBLAST neuron similarity tool (http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/006353). We have developed a number of web resources based on these approaches including an online neuron search tool (see http://jefferislab.org/si/nblast for details). |
URL | https://github.com/jefferis/nat |
Title | catmaid R package |
Description | This provides a bridge between the CATMAID web tool used for EM connectomics and statistical analysis of neuron shape and connectivity by the neuroanatomy toolbox package for the R statistical environment that we continue to develop. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | We have extended this work to enable high throughput identification of neurons traced out of EM volumes. |
URL | https://github.com/jefferis/rcatmaid |
Title | elmr (Electron and Light Microscopy) R package |
Description | This package allows data to be moved between Electron Microscopy (EM) brain volumes and light level template brains. It has been used to visualise neuron tracings from a whole Drosophila brain EM data set in conjunction with previous acquired data. This allows neurons to be compared and searched against light level data, enabling identifcation and quality control of newly traced neurons. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | This software was used to generate panels in 5/7 figures for the preprint listed below describing the whole fly brain volume and its application to neural circuits. The manuscript is currently in revision at Cell. |
URL | https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/13/140905 |
Title | gphys: Open source code for electrophysiology analysis |
Description | We have released an R package enabling analysis and visulation of electrophysiological data. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | The code was critical for the data analysis in an article Kohl, Ostrovsky et al (Cell 2013) |
URL | https://github.com/jefferis/gphys |
Title | natverse |
Description | The natverse is a collection of computational neuroanatomy analysis tools developed by our group. It is now being used by groups around the world to analyse large scale neuroanatomy data, with a particular focus on Drosophila connectomics and |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | At least 27 papers have used the natverse or its ancestors http://natverse.org/publications/ |
URL | http://natverse.org/ |
Title | natverse/neuprintr: neuprintr v1.1 |
Description | Can now specify default dataset for a connection (#115, #116) Optimise neuprint_get_roiInfo() and neuprint_get_meta() (#113) More features for neuprint_ROI_hierarchy() (#110) break down queries that are too large (#89) neuprint_get_meta() has more efficient handling of duplicates (#92) Fix neuprint_read_skeletons() fails to pass on heal.threshold for >1 skeleton bug (#121) Fix and test for incomplete server url (#119) Make neuprint_login() more robust to variations in server specification (#118) Safe field catch (#111) Update test baselines for R 4.0 (#120) |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | neuprintr: R library for accessing connectome data from neuprint servers. This has been used for many projects within and beyond our group to access the "hemibrain" fly connectome which is transforming Drosophila neural circuits research. We first presented it in this paper: The natverse, a versatile toolbox for combining and analysing neuroanatomical data AS Bates, JD Manton, SR Jagannathan, M Costa - Elife, 2020 - elifesciences.org which has been cited 71 times in the two years since, mostly for leveraging connectome resources. Sample papers include: The connectome predicts resting-state functional connectivity across the Drosophila brain MH Turner, K Mann, TR Clandinin - Current Biology, 2021 The neuroanatomical ultrastructure and function of a biological ring attractor DB Turner-Evans, KT Jensen, S Ali, T Paterson - Neuron, 2020 Neural representations of head direction (HD) have been discovered in many species. Circadian programming of the ellipsoid body sleep homeostat in Drosophila T Andreani, C Rosensweig, S Sisobhan, E Ogunlana - bioRxiv, 2021 A neural network for wind-guided compass navigation TS Okubo, P Patella, I D'Alessandro, RI Wilson - Neuron, 2020 - Elsevier Transforming representations of movement from body-to world-centric space J Lu, AH Behbahani, L Hamburg, EA Westeinde - Nature, 2022 |
URL | https://zenodo.org/record/3843545 |
Description | School visit to: Morley memorial primary school, 50 pupils from early years classes, on 14.05.2019. Topic: "the cycle of life". |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | School visit to: Morley memorial primary school, 50 pupils from early years classes, on 14.05.2019. Topic: "the cycle of life". |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | "Home in the Service of Science" artists in residence installation and performance |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Ben was involved in the "Home in the Service of Science" artists in residence installation and performance. This involved 3 performances over 3 days with extensive interaction with the public to explain our science in a fun and engaging way and to try and highlight areas the common aspects of home life and life in the lab. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Alex Bates - President of BlueSci |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | In 2018 Alex was the President of BlueSci, the science media society for the University of Cambridge. He stepped down Summer 2018 and is now the managing editor for just the magazine portion. They don't just engage with University of Cambridge people, but also the public, and recruit writers and artists more broadly than Cambridge. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Alex Bates became president of BlueSci Magazine |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | My PhD Student, Alex became President of the BlueSci Magazine |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Alex Bates is the an Honorary Board Member of CSAR |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Alex Bates is an honorary Board Member of the Cambridge Society for the Application of Research and takes part in committee meetings. CSAR exists to encourage an appreciation of the application of research through lectures, visits, the CSAR PhD student awards and outreach to schools. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Cambridge Science Festival Talk at UTC "Sex, food and smell" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Gave a talk for the Cambridge Science Festival in 2016 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Dana Visited North Cambridge Academy to talk to young girls about her research |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Dana visited a school and talked with young girls about her research as part of "Inspiring Women event at North Cambridge Academy Thursday Oct 20" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Dana attended two Science Showoff Gigs |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Dana attended two Science Showoff Gigs |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Dana participated in "speed networking" at a Science Outreach event at Murray Edwards College |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Dana participated in "speed networking" at a Science Outreach event on March 21st at Murray Edwards College about careers in science. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Dana presented at the NeuroArt Exhibition of CAMBrain |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Dana presented at the NeuoArt exhibition of CAMBrain, and got the runner-up award |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://cambrainsociety.com/2017/01/11/cambrain-neuro-art-competition/ |
Description | Danielle - Artists in residence lunch time conversations |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Artists in residence lunch time conversations - theme corridors |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Danielle - Participation in artists performance event 'Home in the Service of Science' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Participation in artists performance event 'Home in the Service of Science' wrote a commentary for the 'Home in the Service of Science' artist |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Danielle - Soapbox Science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Danielle - Soapbox Science, Cambridge which featured in the Cambridge News |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Erika - STEM Conference at Hampton College |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Last February Erika participated at a STEM Conference at Hampton College in Peterborough aimed at inspiring A-grade students and organised by STEMNET. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Financial Times Filmed Interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Greg talks in the film about the work he does. A transcrip from teh video is as follows: "The big challenge at the moment in trying to understand how brains actually control behaviour is to understand the network of connections within the brain, and how information flows through those networks while the animal is producing a particular behaviour. And that's true whether you're talking about a fly - which is what we study - a worm, a mouse, or a human. Even in a fly brain, which is just a millimetre across, Greg's team have a huge task on their hands, tracing the path of individual neurons through stacks of electron microscope images, and then painstakingly recreating all the connections in a computer model. Greg, what did it take to produce this beautiful picture? So it took the combined efforts of many different scientists with many expertise, there are contributions for over 150 people in this image. And there's about 30m clicks tracing neurons through this electron microscopy image data, that have turned into this image that we see here." |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.ft.com/video/f79f255a-2b8f-468f-acd8-a83c1ea68fe1?playlist-name=editors-picks&playlist-o... |
Description | Financial Times Interview - Stable research funding drives Britain's 'Nobel Factory' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | An article about the LMB in general where Greg Jefferis is mentioned with regards to neuroscience and his work involving mapping all the connections insdie the fly's brain. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.ft.com/content/4309f1fc-f8a5-11e8-8b7c-6fa24bd5409c |
Description | From metastasis to your favourite biscuit: connecting with school students from home |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | For 12 weeks from late April, more than 20 LMB scientists have been taking part in the Medical Research Zone of the online public engagement platform I'm a Scientist, Stay at Home and answering questions from school students all over the UK. The LMB volunteers came from all of the LMB's research divisions, including the University of Cambridge Molecular Immunity Unit, and contributed to the diversity of medical research showcased by the 150 scientists taking part from across the country. This event was organised with the aim to help students stay connected with science, technology, engineering and maths, as well as with their teachers and their classmates, while their education was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Another advantage was that scientists could talk to the public about their work, even while being advised to stay at home, as Dana Galili, one of the researchers who took part, pointed out, "It was nice to be exposed to all the variety of their questions without leaving home, all online". Online events have other advantages that the LMB volunteers prized. Soudabeh Imanikia noted the value of being able to reach children all over the UK and "not just a small portion of Cambridge students", while Lorena Boquete Vilarino enjoyed the atmosphere on the site, "You can have a conversation with many students at the same time while not in a busy and noisy environment, so communication is a lot easier." Maria Marti Solano appreciated the flexibility in how they were able to engage with the students, "It is very easy to participate and still organise your own work as you wish." |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/from-metastasis-to-your-favourite-biscuit-connecting-with-school-stud... |
Description | LIYSF visit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | LMB hosted visit by 18 students from the London International Youth Science Forum - participating students from around the world. Visit included a tour, interactive introduction to light and electron microscopy, mechanical workshops, fly behaviour research, and presentations plus Q&A with current student and postdoc. Feedback as ever very positive, further visit planned for 2020 (Philip Myers and Alex Bates) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/future-scientists-and-science-leaders-visit-the-lmb/ |
Description | LMB Non-scientific Staff Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | Keynote/Invited Speaker |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | ~ 50 non-scientific staff attended a seminar in which I described the background and significance of our work in lay terms and described a few of our most recent results. Received very positive feedback (even compared with the excellent speakers that had preceded me in this series). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
Description | LMB Open Day 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Our research group designed a public engagement activity introducing visitors to the study of brains and behaviour in Drosophila that involved hands on optogenetics and connectomics experiences. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | LifeLab European Researchers Night - Stories from Science Project. Topic: an exhibition showcasing diverse profiles of scientists to the public. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | LifeLab European Researchers Night - Stories from Science Project. Topic: an exhibition showcasing diverse profiles of scientists to the public. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | MRC LMB Open Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | Workshop Facilitator |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | over 2000 members of the public from Cambridge and the surrounding region (including quite a few from London). We estimate that at least 200 people visiting our workshop on the use of Drosophila to study neural circuits. A huge amount of positive feedback from children and adults attending the open day. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/news-and-events/public-engagement/lmb-open-day/ |
Description | Medical science comedy cabaret evening |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | Paper Presentation |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Made a light hearted 15 min presentation to a lay audience about our area of research as part of a Medical science comedy cabaret evening. Other performers did stand up comedy, live demonstrations, songs etc. The event was organised in conjunction with the LMB open day. Subsequently invited to appear on Naked Scientists radio show themed around olfaction. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/news-and-events/public-engagement/lmb-open-day/ |
Description | Naked Scientist: Question of the Week |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Answered the listener-contribted "Question of the Week" for a Naked Scientist Podcast. The question concerned the relationship between perceived intensity and odour concentration. n/a |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
Description | Radio Interview - Nov 2013 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | Keynote/Invited Speaker |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interview and panel discussion on regional radio show then released as podcast with international following forthcoming |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/ |
Description | Radio Interview JK Feb 2013 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | Keynote/Invited Speaker |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A student in my group was interviewed about his PhD experience and his very exciting results on sexually dimorphic circuitry. The interview was broadcast on regional radio (BBC Cambs), syndicated on ABC and then distributed by the naked scientist podcast which has an international following. This initial activity has resulted in ongoing contact between my group and the naked scientists team. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1000119/ |
Description | STEM in Song Video |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | "STEM in Song" was a video produced where it involved engaging girls in science, technology, engineering and maths through music with St Catherine's College Girls' Choir. Erika Dona was involved with this and starred in the video. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c4KMOWoZW4&list=PLQbPquAyEw4fM3elXgMBGpfEUHnc6ZyTI&index=6&t=0s |
Description | School visit: Murray Edwards College, careers in science day - Danielle |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | school visit: Murray Edwards College, careers in science day (21st March 2016) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |