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Neuropeptides and GABA are co-expressed and co-released by hippocampal interneurons. Bistratified and O-LM cells innervate segregated dendritic domains of pyramidal cells and co-release GABA and somatostatin acting on pre- and postsynaptic receptors. How do the activity patterns of these peptidergic/GABAergic interneurons support behaviour? Katona et al. recorded, labelled and identified individual interneurons in freely-moving rats and investigated their firing activity during movement and sleep in relation to hippocampal network oscillations. They found that behavioural and network states differentiate the firing of somatostatin-expressing bistratified and O-LM interneurons in the hippocampus. During movement, the two cell types cooperate temporally, firing at the trough of theta oscillatory cycles but at different frequencies. In contrast, during sleep, the two cell types dissociate in their function; bistratified cells are strongly active while O-LM cells decrease firing.

The results suggest that segregated glutamatergic inputs to CA1 pyramidal cell dendrites from the entorhinal cortex and the CA3 area are differentially modulated by GABA and somatostatin during behaviour.

Sara graduated in Physics at the University of Barcelona, Spain, in 2009.  Sara then stayed on at the University of Barcelona to complete her Masters degree in Biophysics (2010), during which she undertook her final research project in the Neurophysics Laboratory led by Dr. Jordi Soriano. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the same place, with Dr. Jordi Soriano as her thesis advisor.  Her PhD project is focused on the characterization of activity dynamics and functional network connectivity within clustered neuronal cultures.

Sara joins the Unit for one month (5 May - 5 June) in order to learn new experimental techniques that she can apply to characterising the structural map of connections in her neuronal cultures, as a collaboration with Unit scientist Dr. Juan Mena-Segovia in the Bolam Group.

On the 24th April 2014 a Symposium was held to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Blaschko Fellowships, and the life of Hugh Blaschko, FRS. The Symposium opened with an introduction by Professor Peter Somogyi:  “20 years of The Hugh Blaschko European Research Fellowship”, followed by talks from Professor David Smith:  “Hugh Blaschko: the man and the scientist”,  Professor Hans Winkler  (University of Innsbruck): “Looking back as a pharmacologist: Hugh Blaschko, chromaffin granules and drug markets”, and Professor Les Iversen, FRS: “Novel psychoactive drugs: Applied monoamine pharmacology”.

Eight previous Blaschko Scholars were present, from the earliest award (1994-1995) to the present, and talks were given by Drs Laura Conforti, Leah Herregen, Eef Hogervorst, Amy Pooler, Gabor Tamas, and the current Fellow, Gunes Unal.

The symposium was held in conjunction with the 10th David Smith Lecture in Anatomical Neuropharmacology. The speaker was Professor Zoltan Nusser, Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, who gave the lecture “Molecular, functional and structural heterogeneity of central synapses”. The lecture also celebrated the founding of the MRC Unit 30 years ago, with the arrival of the memorial stone from Scotland placed next to the Unit Oak. 

The day was concluded by Professor Antony Galione, Head of the Department of Pharmacology, and was followed by a celebratory dinner hosted by Linacre College for speakers and guests including HE Peter Szabadhegy, the Hungarian Ambassador to the UK, Dr Ruth Baker and HH Judge Ann Campbell (Trustees of the Blaschko Research Scholarship), Sir Bryan Cartledge, Principal of Linacre College (1988) as well as the current Principal, Nick Brown.

Yves Weissenberger joins the Group of Dr. David Dupret for his second lab rotation as an MSc Neuroscience student at Oxford University. Working with Dr. Alvaro Tejero-Cantero, Yves will use multi-site electrophysiology as well as computational modelling to investigate how distributed neural circuits in the mouse brain interact to enable reward-driven learning about spatial environments.  Yves received a BA in Physiological Sciences from Oxford University, where he previously studied how the brain solves correspondence problems in vision.