IBCS Seminar

Bio:
My research is focused on studying the fine circuitry of the nervous system in order to reveal mechanisms of sensory processing and neural computation at the level of single cells and neuronal networks. I completed my PhD under the supervision of Michael Hausser at UCL, where I performed the first in vivo recordings from cerebellar granule cells, the smallest and most numerous cell type in the brain. Subsequently, I completed postdoctoral work with Professor Troy Margrie (UCL) and Kenneth Harris (Rutgers University), studying to sensory processing in the neocortex. I was awarded a Career Development Award from the UK Medical Research Council and a Young Investigator Award from the Human Frontier Science Program to establish my own research group at Imperial College London. We record the electrical activity of single cells and small populations of cells, combining electrophysiology and molecular tools to manipulate neuronal activity in behaving animals. My lab is particularly interested in the role of the cerebellum in movement and have recently revealed the function of different components of the cerebellar cortex in encoding of whisker kinematics (Chen et al, eLife 2016; Chen et al, Nat Commun 2017). I moved my group to the University of Bristol in October 2018 and am currently a Wellcome Trust Investigator Scientist.