We are excited to have Dr. Eelke Snoeren visiting to undertake a sabbatical in the lab between now and the end of the year. Eelke's lab at the fabulously-named Arctic University in Tromsø, Norway studies the neurobiology of sexual behaviour. While in Leicester, Eelke will be learning some voltammetry and fibre photometry and brushing up on various British idioms.
A postdoc position is available to work on a BBSRC- and EU-funded project on the role of dopamine neurons in relaying nutritional value. The ideal candidate needs to have a current UK Personal Licence so that they can get started straight away. More details can be found here including the application instructions.
Thanks to Emily Hill and Masa Svent for their excellent work over the last few months conducting BBSRC-funded projects in the lab. Emily determined the sensitivity of dopamine terminals to different metabolic substrates and Masa characterised a subpopulation of neurons in the lateral hypothalamus. The lab will miss them but wishes them all the best in their next labs.
We have a new set of PhD studentships available in the lab that will be funded by BBSRC and/or University of Leicester. The successful candidates will start in September 2017. More details can be found on our website and questions can be addressed to Dr. James McCutcheon (jem64 at le.ac.uk).
A university-funded PhD studentship is now available in the lab to start this September. More details can be found on our website and questions can be addressed to Dr. James McCutcheon.
This Monday, we were pleased to welcome Dr. Michelle Murphy who joined the lab as a new postdoc. Michelle has a strong pedigree in the feeding world. Before joining us she completed her Ph.D. with Prof. Fran Ebling at University of Nottingham and a first postdoc with Prof. Julian Mercer at University of Aberdeen.
A BBSRC-funded PhD studentship is now available via the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership, a doctoral program that brings together University of Leicester, University of Birmingham, and University of Warwick. The project in our lab is entitled "Role of dopamine and mesolimbic circuits in encoding nutritional value."
For more information please contact Dr. James McCutcheon or see the link below.
Link to project
We have a new paper published in collaboration with Drs. Will Norton and Andrew Young. Lauren Jones, a PhD student in the Norton lab is lead author. In the article, we describe the first voltammetry measurements, to our knowledge, that have been made in the zebrafish brain.
Jones LJ, McCutcheon JE, Young AMJ, Norton WJ (2015). Neurochemical measurements in the zebrafish brain. Front Behav Neurosci
We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Heramb Chadchankar has joined the lab as a postdoc to work on a BBSRC-funded project entitled "Role of nucleus accumbens in encoding nutritional value".
Heramb completed his Ph.D. in the lab of Dr. Leonid Yavich at the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio where he used in vivo voltammetry to study the role of alpha-synuclein in regulating neurotransmitter release.
We have a new paper published online in Physiology & Behavior entitled, 'The role of dopamine in the pursuit of nutritional value'. This review discusses the different methods that can be used to isolate the contribution of post-ingestive processes to feeding behaviour and how these have been combined with methods of assaying dopamine activity.
We have a new methods paper available in Current Protocols in Neuroscience in collaboration with the Roitman Lab and first-authored by Sam Fortin. It describes in detail all the steps required to make fast-scan cyclic voltammetry recordings in freely-moving subjects. Email one of us if you would like a PDF.
Fortin et al (2015). Sampling phasic dopamine signaling with fast-scan cyclic voltammetry in awake, behaving rats. Curr Protoc Neurosci 70:7.25.1-7.25.20. PMID: 25559005
A postdoc position is available to work on a recently-funded BBSRC project examining the role of the nucleus accumbens in encoding nutritional value. Interested applicants should contact Dr. James McCutcheon.