Greg Jefferis joins Anne Bertolotti as joint head of LMB’s Neurobiology Division in Cambridge
Greg Jefferis is to join Anne Bertolotti as joint head of the Neurobiology Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where they will spearhead its expansion.
Group leader Greg takes over from Michael Hastings, who has led the division for the past 10 years.
Greg, who began his research group at the LMB in 2008, aims to link genes, neural circuits and behaviour in the fruit fly, Drosophila, in his research.
A key experimental approach is the use of connectomics to reveal complete brain wiring diagrams (connectomes) at the key resolution of individual synaptic connections.
The LMB created the field of connectomics, which is an important era of growth.
Greg’s group has had recent collaborations at the University of Cambridge, Janelia Research Campus and Princeton University to produce the first complete connectomes of both the fly brain and nerve cord, which is analogous to our own spinal cord.
Connectomes can accelerate a number of areas of neuroscience, with olfactory circuits - relating to the sense of smell - a focus area for Greg’s group. Understanding how smell turns into behaviour in Drosophila brains provides a model for many key aspects of brain function. Earlier work has shown how memory recall depends on circuits previously considered specialised for innate odour responses.
Other new research from Greg’s group has demonstrated how flies use smell to determine both the identity and position of other flies, revealing unexpected similarities to the processing of sight and sound.
Greg, who has a BA in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge and a PhD fromt Stanford University, returned to Cambridge in 2004, initially as a Wellcome/St John’s College fellow at the Department of Zoology, before he joined the LMB.
He was elected to the EMBO Young Investigator Programme in 2012, made a FENS Kavli Scholar in 2016 and awarded the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture by the Royal Society in 2019.
