https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.126.40

Dr Jamie Johnston
University of Leeds, UK

Jamie will be presenting at the Processing and Modulation of Sensory Signals: From the Periphery to the Cortex conference on 20 – 21 June discuss their lab’s sensory physiology research.

Having been enamoured with potassium channels during my undergraduate studies, I began my research career by poking neurons to see how these ion channels enabled neurones in the auditory system to match their excitability to their function. I then broadened a growing interest in sensory physiology by moving to work in the olfactory and then visual systems. During these transitions my interests expanded from how an individual neuron functions to include how networks of neurons work together in circuits to encode sensory stimuli.

In 2016, I moved to the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leeds, UK and started my own lab to continue exploring neural circuits. We are now a multinational lab with members from Belgium, Romania, UK, Turkey, China and even as far away as Newcastle. Most of the lab is working on the olfactory bulb with projects ongoing on the role of interneurons, regulation by metabolic state, learning, and through collaboration, we have also been investigating sensory neurons within the spinal cord.

We like to see what the brain is up to when we stimulate it. So, many of our experiments involve imaging neural activity with multi-photon microscopy while we deliver odours, but we also employ electrophysiology, behaviour, and computational modelling when necessary. We are also a maker lab and proponents of open-source and community-developed tools. Most of our equipment is custom built to suit the experiments we want to do. This includes imaging rigs, behaviour enclosures and microcontrollers to measure physiological signals and synchronise recording of multiple parameters across an experiment. We have hosted engineering students for projects focused on tool development.

Our lab sits within a broad neuroscience community at Leeds that is both supportive and collaborative. The campus sits on the edge of Leeds city centre and with the fantastic Yorkshire Dales National Park on our doorstep it provides an excellent place to live and work.