News
A new 3-year collaborative Leverhulme grant: "Synaptic morphodynamics (SMD): information processing by mechanical movement" - PI: Mikko Juusola (Sheffield) and PI: Paul Verkade (Bristol) - will start in September 2024
06 March 2024
We will soon be looking for post-docs - stay tuned.
Alice's Nature paper is out now!
Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone
See also the cool Nature video about the research
06 March 2024
Hip hip hurray!
Back working in ESRF
06 March 2024
Keivan's graduation ceremony and family visit
06 January 2024
Happy families
Planning exciting new research in Oxford
05-06 December 2023
From eye development to active vision
Barbara and Cora from Edinburgh visiting
04 December 2023
Linking Morphodynamic sampling with robotics
New ESRF grant (LS-3339): “How do ultrafast morphodynamic synaptic adaptations enhance visual information flow?”: 9 shifts on the ESRF beamline ID16B (C07) in Grenoble, France, in Spring 2024.
We will study how the fruit fly (Drosophila) photoreceptor synapses adapt to light stimulation. In the classic view, neurones are immobile, and their information transfer quantal, with neurotransmitters released from similarly-sized vesicles. Our new results are now changing this view by showing that synaptic communication is morphodynamic: when adapting to light changes, their structures move and are reshaped dynamically. Using Drosophila as our model, we aim to understand how X-ray stimulation, which activates photoreceptors like visible light, adapts synaptic transmission. Employing high-speed X-ray imaging and electroretinograms (ERGs), we will analyse photoreceptor terminal activity with Drosophila's consistent eye layout aiding synapse identification. Extending our prior work on photoreceptors, we will capture real-time axon terminal movements, synaptic vesicle changes, and ERGs under X-ray and visible light. Our objective is to discern how synaptic morphodynamics enhance vision.
04 December 2023
Visiting Femptonincs in Budapest (II)
07-11 November 2023
Performing experiments with the 3D Atlas system.
Visiting Femptonincs in Budapest (I)
23-25 August 2023
A real pleasure learning about the new technologies and getting to know the Femptonics team.
Cora from Edinburgh visiting
2-5 August 2023
All the fun in mixing neural signalling with engineering
Celebrating our new BBSRC & NSF grant with a swim
03 August 2023
Any excuse to dip in.
A new ~4-year collaborative BBSRC & NSF grant (BB/Y000234/1 – 2022BBSRC-NSF/BIO) "Generating New Network Analysis Tools for Elucidating the Functional Logic of 3D Vision Circuits of the Drosophila Brain" - PI: Mikko Juusola (Sheffield) and PI: Aurel Lazar (Columbia University, NY) - will start in early 2024.
02 August 2023
We will soon be looking for post-docs - stay tuned.
Visiting Lena's and Alistair's labs in Durham
31 July 2023
Joni and Mikko made a quick trip to the University of Durham to collect some interesting insects for collaborative research.
Joni's working visit to Sheffield
27 July 2023
Joni is back working with Mikko to collect new data and advance our high-speed imaging system.
Zhuoyi visiting the lab
25 July 2023
Zhuoyi Song (of our alumni) from Fudan University, China, visited us
Visiting Barbara's lab
12-13 June 2023
Great time in Edinburgh working on our joint EPSRC grant.
A new video of our research in the University of Sheffield Player
06 June 2023
James passed his Viva - PhD superior
19 May 2023
All together now: For he's a jolly good fellow! ...
James and Mikko Visited Chromacity Lasers in Edinburgh
19-20 April 2023
Sea swimming time!
Keivan passed his Viva - PhD extraordinaire
06 February 2023
Hip-Hip-Hurray!
A new TUoS Public Engagement Development Fund grant "Insect inspired stereovision" - PI: Mikko Juusola (Sheffield) & co-I: Joni Kemppainen (Sheffield) - will start in mid-February 2023.
26 January 2023
This project aims to (1) record new outreach-optimised high-speed microscope imaging data from insect compound eyes, (2) use this data with computer graphics simulations to produce high-quality videos/animations of how insect stereovision works for the University Player and (3) edit illustrative clips of these as supplementary videos for our future publications.
A new 3-year BBSRC grant "New insight into functional eye evolution: seeing the world through moving photoreceptors" - PI: Mikko Juusola (Sheffield) - will start in late spring 2023.
9 November 2022
This project aims to study functional eye evolution using insects with unique lifestyles and eye architectures, in which photoreceptor microsaccades can be recorded with powerful in vivo assays.
A new 4-year collaborative EPSRC grant "Insect-inspired depth perception" - PI: Barbara Webb (Edinburgh) & co-PI: Mikko Juusola (Sheffield) - will start in Feb 2023.
24 October 2022
The core aim of this project is to translate insect visual depth perception to robot systems.Â
Mikko's new talk in World Wide Neuro | Sussex Vision Series
1 August 2022
Keivan's dueling swim farewell
31 May 2022
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye, adieu!
Debarati visiting
25 April 2022
Welcome, Debarati.
Debarati Bhattacharya from Elzbieta Pyza's lab (Jagiellonian University, Krakow) is doing some research with us for a couple of months.
As a lab initiation, we took her for a cold swim - of course.
Oulu research visit
29 March 2022
Keivan and Mikko gave talks at the University of Oulu, Finland. The Kaleva newspaper made a nice story about our collaborative research. And of course, there was some ice swimming.
Dr Ben
16 March 2022
Many congratulations to Dr Ben, who just passed his video viva!
Japanese film crew
23 February 2022
NHK (Japanese equivalent to BBC) visited our lab in filming a documentary about Miyamoto Musashi (a well-known 16th-century Samurai warrior), who could capture houseflies with chopsticks. We did fly experiments to show what kind of superior visual abilities Musashi was fighting against.
Visiting Cairn Research
12 February 2022
Keivan and Mikko visited our old friends at Cairn Research in Faversham, Kent and had a refreshing lunch and sea swim.
Celebrating our latest big paper
21 January 2022
Let's celebrate good times!