Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour

04/08/2026

Join us on 10 September at 4 pm, where Julia Gillard, Chair of Wellcome Trust and the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, will ask "Why do people put their trust in science?"

Public debate today is shaped as much by who we trust as by what we know. Drawing on her experience across research, policy and public life, Gillard will explore how that trust is built, why it's fragile, and what scientists, institutions and policymakers can do to sustain it.

📅 Thursday 10 September, 4 pm
📍 Sainsbury Wellcome Centre and online
🎟️ Free and open to all. Registration essential: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-swc-lecture-julia-gillard-tickets-1989656723821?aff=oddtdtcreator

We are delighted to confirm that this year’s SWC Lecture will be delivered by Julia Gillard

27/07/2026

Sleep not only makes us feel better, but it’s vital for helping us learn new skills.

In a new study, researchers from the Stephenson-Jones Lab and Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit explored how the brain consolidates the "muscle memories" that underpin skills such as playing an instrument, serving a tennis ball or learning a dance routine.

Using a motor-sequence task in mice, the team found that neural activity linked to learning is replayed during sleep in the dorsal striatum, a brain region important for motor learning. Surprisingly, this replay happened even without the hippocampus, suggesting that some forms of memory consolidation can occur independently of the brain's traditional memory centre.

The findings challenge the idea that the hippocampus is required for all memory consolidation and point to parallel memory systems in the brain.

The work is now published in Nature Neuroscience.

Find out more on our website: https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/blog/muscle-memories-how-does-sleep-produce-consolidation

Image shows example movement tracking in the five port task used in the research, coloured by the type of neural sequence. Credit: Stephenson-Jones Lab.

02/07/2026

It was fantastic to be part of the recent UCL Faculty of Life Sciences Science Fair. We had a great time talking brains, neurons and neuroscience with visitors!

Huge thanks to our PhD student volunteers.

30/06/2026

SWC and the Gatsby Unit at UCL are inviting expressions of interest from early-career researchers who wish to be sponsored for external career fellowships to establish an independent research group in mechanistic theories of neural computation or learning.

A unique opportunity to work at the intersection of neuroscience and computation in one of the world’s leading neuroscience environments.

Apply by 16 July.

https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/content/fellowship-sponsorship

18/06/2026

Just over a week left to apply!

Are you a postdoc in neuroscience? The Emerging Neuroscientists Seminar Series at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is your chance to:

🧠 Present in London
🌍 Connect with SWC & UCL researchers
✈️ Get travel & accommodation covered

Selection is double-blind - no CVs, no references, just your science.

🗓 Deadline: 30 June 2026
📍 Talks: Oct 2026 – Feb 2027

Tag someone who should apply!

Visit our website to find out more: https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/content/emerging-neuroscientists-seminar-series-enss

12/06/2026

How do you reconcile dopamine's role in learning and movement? And how are complex signals in the frontal cortex read out by downstream circuits?

SWC Seminar speaker Dr Christine Constantinople, New York University, discusses her research in our latest Q&A:

https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/qa/two-signals-one-decision-cracking-brains-value-code

📸Medium spiny neurons in the striatum. Image courtesy of Dr Carla Golden, NYU.

08/06/2026

Thinking about your next career move?

We invite expressions of interest from early career researchers who wish to be sponsored for external career fellowships to establish an independent research group in mechanistic theories of neural computation or learning.

The successful candidate will establish an independent computational research programme, supported by an external fellowship and hosted jointly at SWC and Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, that develops models and theories linking the activity of neural circuits to the behavioural processes that underpin perception, cognition, planning, motor control or learning.

Join a collaborative, world-class community at the interface of theory and experiment.

Deadline: 16 July 2026

More info on our website: https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/content/fellowship-sponsorship

27/05/2026

Congratulations to Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel, Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL, who has been elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society for his pioneering work in neuroscience.

“I am honoured to become a Fellow of the Royal Society. Making discoveries in neuroscience is a big challenge and requires a team effort, and so this honour is shared with all my lab members and collaborators. Now more than ever, the Royal Society has a vital role, as a collective voice for championing science and injecting reason into the public discourse. I look forward to contributing to this endeavour.”- Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel FRS, Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL.

Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel became Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in 2016, leading the Centre’s mission to understand how the brain drives behaviour. His work addresses a fundamental question: how does the brain combine sensory information with prior experience to perceive the world and guide adaptive behaviour? His research revealed that the structure of the sensory world is reflected in the specificity of synaptic connections between cortical neurons, establishing key principles of the circuit architecture that supports perception and inference. More recently, he has used large-scale approaches for recording and perturbing neural activity to study how computations within and across brain regions contribute to decision-making, working memory and flexible behaviour, working toward a mechanistic understanding of cognition at the whole-brain level.

Read more: https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/research-news/director-sainsbury-wellcome-centre-elected-fellow-royal-society

22/05/2026

Are you a postdoc working in neuroscience? Apply to the Emerging Neuroscientists Seminar Series at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for your chance to:

🧠 Present your work in London
🌐 Connect with researchers at SWC and UCL

Travel and accommodation costs are covered. No CVs, publication list or references needed. Selection is fully double-blind and based on your research ideas.

🗓 Deadline: 30 June 2026
📍 Talks: Oct 2026 – Feb 2027

Details : https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/content/emerging-neuroscientists-seminar-series-enss

15/05/2026

Apply now for Neuronauts Summer Camp 2026!

Neuronauts is a free summer programme for secondary school students in London that offers hands-on learning in computational neuroscience, electrical engineering, computer science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

The camp will run weekdays from July 27 to August 7, from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, UCL (W1T 4JG).

🎓 Open to students entering Years 9–12
📍 For students from the Greater London area
🍽️ Lunch and travel within London covered
🗓️ Applications close May 29 at 23:59
ℹ️ Find out more: https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/content/neuronauts
👉 Apply: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrOTx10xgbaZsvHx8dUAIy4ZrV4-qriUbXbdaf_oO27h2w_Q/viewform

Please share with teachers and students who may like to apply!