News | Molecular mechanisms in the nervous and vascular systems

16 October 2025: science classes at Beckley Primary School!

Biggles the teddy had been kidnapped! Our team and the key stage 2 children used chemistry to find out who the culprit was and find Biggles. Very fun outreach activity run by Tiina, Jana, Dasa, Miguel and Elena. Thanks to Ellie Williams (CMD) for inspiration and materials.

1 October 2025: beautiful sunset visible from the department today.

The famous 'Dreaming Spires" of Oxford next to our beautiful colourful glass building.

10 September 2025: It is out on bioRxiV! The most amazing paper by Miguel, Claudia, Kosuke, Jin & colleagues

Miguel calls this his "War and Peace" because it is so big, so seminal, and so detailed. A magnificent, truly exceptional paper. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.09.671438v1

1 April 2025: We start the new ERC Synergy project SUNRISE !!!!

A large collaborative project with the del Toro (Barcelona) and Castellani (Lyon) labs to tackle early paediatric cancers. SUNRISE stands for "Rise of the Structure-encoded UNC5 interactome in aggressive behaviours of Neuro-developmental tumours"

4 March 2025: the first super-resolution map of Teneurin4 expression in the developing cortex!

Congratulations Miguel, Maria, Claudia & team for these beautiful results

1 December 2023: congratulations Dr. Berbeira-Santana!

Miguel passed his DPhil viva with huge success! Well done!

27 November 2023: Congratulations Dr. Chu-Antypas!

Am started this 'week of vivas' by defending her amazing thesis super well.

22-24 November 2023: our first collaborative MIGRATE meeting

This inaugural meeting in Oxford brought together all four labs of MIGRATE for lots of fun and science. https://migrate.web.ox.ac.uk/

2 June 2023: lab excursion to Otmoor Nature Reserve.

Perfect weather, lovely English countryside and Mitchelin star food. A wonderful day!

9 June 2023: Congratulations Dr. Kokolaki!

Well done Marilee for passing the viva with excellent results, and despite the mini heat wave!

15 Feb 2023: Congratulations to the labs of Elena, Dani, Lindsay and Valentin!

Funded by a generous Wellcome Trust Discovery Award we will investigate the molecular mechanisms that direct cortical migration. This is an exciting project for postdocs wishing to undertake cross-disciplinary research and train in multiple labs. More information: https://migrate.web.ox.ac.uk

21 Dec 2022: thanks Diamond team!

For a nice summary of our recent work on GPR97 structure and function please click on the image (picture credit: Dr. Kamel el Omari)

16 November 2022: Congratulations Dr. Zheng-Gerard!

After a record viva of just 1.5 hours the examiners were convinced that Celine deserves a DPhil title. (Oxford vivas often take 3h and more...)

9 November 2022: new article in Neuron!

In this review we are highlighting themes and ideas gathered at the EMBO workshop on Molecular Neurobiology 2022

27 October 2022: lab day in Beckley!

Harvesting apples and sampling the village pub lunch menu.

13 October 2022: short video on our new paper

Click on the image for a behind-the scenes interview with Carol Robinson, and shots of the lab.

13 October 2022: Hurray! The new Cell paper is out!

Congratulations to all the authors for the discovery of a brand new signalling system in cell migration.

13 October 2022: Congratulations Celine & co-authors!

Our new paper on the function of GPR97 in neutrophils was accepted for publication in Nature Communications! Click to see the preprint.

1 September 2022: Beautiful new paper in Structure!

This study on the FLRT2 protein is based on computational work in collaboration with the lab of Matthieu Chavent. Supplemented with cutting-edge super-resolution microscopy done in the Martin-Fernandez team.

2 July 2022: Maria's baby shower!

Best of luck to Maria who is expecting a baby. This magnificent cake was made by Amy.

28 June 2022: Congratulations Dr. Owen Crowther!

Owen defended his long DPhil viva successfully - well done Owen! The examiners could not get enough of the conversation :)

23-27 May 2022: back in person!

Researchers came together for the 3rd EMBO workshop on Molecular Neurobiology, in our favourite location on Crete. It was fantastic!

28 January 2022: first in-person lab excursion after the pandemic!

The chef at Somerville College made a special effort for our first New Year dinner since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. So good to be able to come together again.

1 October 2021: Congratulations to Fina on being awarded a 3-year fellowship!

Fina is now a junior research fellow of the prestigious Queen's college at Oxford.

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