Research

We are interested in molecular mechanisms that configure neural circuits to carry out computations. Our approach combines electrophysiological, molecular and behavioural analysis, with computational modeling and development of molecular and software tools. Current topics of interest include circuit mechanisms for encoding of location by the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, and roles of ion channels in circuit computations important for behaviour. We hope that over the long term our research will be important for understanding and treating clinical disorders such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy.

Follow these links for more information about our research and funding.

People

Follow these links to contact current members and alumni. Or click on a person below.

 

Matt Nolan

Group Leader
mattnolan@ed.ac.uk

Cian O’Donnell

Research fellow

Mel White

Research fellow

Derek Garden

Research Fellow

Helen Ramsden

PhD student

Cristina Martinez-Gonzalez

Research Fellow

Brianna Vandrey

Research Fellow

Klara Gerlei

Research Fellow

Arianna Rinaldi

Research Fellow

Christina McClure

Research Fellow

Gulsen Surmeli

Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow

Publications

Selected Recent Publications

Garden, D.L.F., Oostland, M., Jelitai, M., Rinaldi, A., Duguid, I., Nolan, M.F. (2018) Inferior olive HCN1 channels coordinate synaptic integration and complex spike timing. Cell Report. 22(7): 1722-1733.

Tennant, S.A., Fischer, L., Garden, D.L.F., Gerlei, K.Z., Martinez-Gonzalez, C., McClure, C., Wood, E.R., Nolan M.F. (2018) Stellate cells in the medial entorhinal cortex are required for spatial learning. Cell Report. 22(5): 1313-1324.

Schmidt-Hieber, C. & Nolan, M.F. (2017). Synaptic integrative mechanisms for spatial cognition. Nature Neuroscience, 20(11): 1483-1492.

Click here for a full list of publications.

Code, tools and datasets

Stochastic ion channel simulation software

http://www.psics.org

Mouse virtual reality

http://mousevr.blogspot.com

Molecular tools

Constructs developed by the lab are deposited at Addgene

RNAseq datasets

RNAseq date for Ramsden et al. (2015) is available here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE63300

Models

Computational models that we have developed are deposited in ModelDB: Click here

Analysis code

General analysis code for published and ongoing projects can be found here:

https://github.com/MattNolanLab

Documentation and code for Python tools to analyse grid firing patterns can be found here:

http://gridcells.readthedocs.org/en/latest/index.html#

https://github.com/lsolanka/gridcells

Contact

Matt Nolan
Centre for Integrative Physiology
University of Edinburgh
Hugh Robson Building
George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9XD

mattnolan@ed.ac.uk

Join us

If you are interested in joining the lab then please email with a CV and a brief description of projects you'd like to work on (mattnolan@ed.ac.uk).