Molnár Lab

04/09/2026

Dr Deborah Clarke's Festschrift

Wed 7 Oct 2026 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Lecture Theare 3, Lower ground floor, Life and Mind Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3EL

Deborah Clarke was the Course Lecturer for the MSc in Neuroscience and the 1+3 Doctoral programme in Neuroscience. She both administered and taught on these programmes. This event is a celebration of her contribution to Oxford's graduate programme in Neuroscience which has an excellent record of achievement in terms of the publications and future careers of students who have graduated. The programme is highly regarded internationally and many alumni are now leading neuroscientists. The event will feature talks given by alumni and key figures in the Oxfored Neuroscience community

The programme is being drawn up. At this stage we would like to gauge attendance.

11.00 Opening remarks Prof. Andrew King

11.10 - 11.30 - Prof. Andrew King

11.30 - 11.50 - Assoc. Prof. Susie Murphy

11.50 - 12.10 - Dr. Riam Kanso

12.10 - 1.30 - Lunch break. There is an excellent café on the ground floor

13.30 - 13.50 - Dr. Nick Myers

13.50 - 14.10 - Assoc. Prof. Sana Suri and Dr. Matthew Warren

1410 - 1430 - Dr. Sophie Avery

14.30 - 15.00 - Coffee break

15.00 - 15.20 - Dr. Rebecca Wright

15.20 -15.40 - Dr. MaryAnn Noonan

15.40-16.00 – Prof. Zoltán Molnár

4.00 - 6.00 Drinks reception

LOCATION

Life and Mind Building, OX1 3EL

Register here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/oxfordneuroscience/2306751

19/08/2026

CORTICAL TERRITORIES COMPETE IN DEVELOPMENTAL SPACE RACE: The program that guides the formation of the association cortex—which comprises regions that facilitate higher-order cognition, including abstract thought—activates around the frontotemporal poles of the developing cortex and spreads inward, according to the study by Tsyporin, Sestan et al., which analyzed spatial gene-expression data from mice, macaques, humans and other species (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10699-x). Soon after, sensory input from the thalamus kicks off a competing program that suppresses the development of the association areas in selected regions, carving out islands of the sensorimotor cortex.
See News/Spectrum by Holly Barker in Spectrum: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.53053/HIFQ9328
https://www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/cortical-territories-compete-in-developmental-space-race/

19/08/2026

DPAG Neuroscience Seminar

Misbuilding Brains: Biological Causes of Neurodevelopmental Divergence and Disorder

Speaker Professor DAVID J. PRICE MD DPhil, Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, Edinburgh University

Monday, 21 September 2026, 4pm to 5pm

I will discuss themes from my new book on how genetics and environment combine to produce the enormous diversity of human brains, including common mental health conditions and major neurodevelopmental disorders. I will explore how variability in our genomes and environment impact iterative growth processes and discuss where, when and how specific neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodivergent conditions arise across the life course. I will touch on clinical conditions that emerge at all stages of life, from those appearing prenatally, in childhood and in adolescence to those that manifest in the elderly but likely start early in life.

For more information contact: [email protected]

Venue: Sherrington Building - Sherrington Library
Sherrington Library Sherrington Building off Parks Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3PT United Kingdom

Department: Physiology Anatomy and Genetics (Department)

Host: Professor Zoltan Molnar

https://events.ox.ac.uk/oxford_event/d76c1725-2897-f111-b8dc-000d3ad4a4b7

Link to the book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Misbuilding-Brains-Biological-Neurodevelopmental-Divergence/

17/08/2026

From: DPAG August 2026 news roundup

A historic recording from the beginnings of modern cellular neuroscience
Professor Zoltán Molnár has donated to DPAG, a remarkable glass plate carrying an early recording of an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) from the laboratory of Sir John Eccles at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

The recording belongs to an extraordinary period in the history of neuroscience. In 1951, Eccles and his younger colleagues Lawrence Brock and John Coombs pioneered the use of intracellular microelectrodes to record electrical activity directly from neurons in the mammalian central nervous system. Working on spinal motoneurons, they were able to observe neuronal electrical events from inside individual nerve cells, including the synaptic potentials through which neurons excite and inhibit one another. Their experiments, conducted almost simultaneously with those of J. Walter Woodbury and Harry Patton in Seattle, helped establish the foundations of modern cellular neurophysiology.

Our modern understanding of central nervous system neurophysiology directly grew from this pioneering work. The Dunedin experiments also played an important role in changing Eccles’ own understanding of synaptic transmission and opened the way to the experimental study of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic mechanisms.

The glass recording plate was preserved at the University of Otago and was presented to Professor Zoltán Molnár by Professor Phil Sheard following Molnár’s seminar in Dunedin in December 2014. Professor Molnár donated it to DPAG during the Department’s 2026 celebrations of Sir John Eccles, preserving a tangible link between one of the formative moments of modern neuroscience and neuroscience research and teaching at Oxford today.

11/08/2026

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE
Cortical Development, Neural Stem Cells to Neural Circuits
Giardini Naxos, Sicily, Italy, May 9-13, 2027

11/08/2026

Auguste Vadisiute, Bernadette Basilico, Daria Iakovleva and Luise Schlotterose welcome submissions on broad aspects of glial biology for this excellent initiative of new Frontiers Research Topic: Sex-dependent and lifespan-related variation in glial biology: From neurodevelopment to neurodegeneration
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83283/sex-dependent-and-lifespan-related-variation-in-glial-biology-from-neurodevelopment-to-neurodegeneration

21/07/2026

A long journey to map some of the developing brain’s earliest neurons
We are very pleased to share our collaborative study with Chiaki Ohtaka-Maruyama's laboratory from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Sciences on subplate neurons—some of the earliest neurons to mature in the developing cerebral cortex. These cells help guide the first connections of the brain, but they are remarkably diverse and change rapidly as development proceeds.
We combined microarray analysis, single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics to examine where different subplate populations are located and which genes they express. The study revealed multiple molecularly distinct populations and identified promising markers, including Cryab, Cdh13, Nr4a2 and Lmo3. The results provide a new framework for studying how early cortical circuits are assembled and for investigating which subplate neurons disappear during development and which survive into adulthood.
Behind the data is a long-standing human partnership. The project began more than ten years ago and developed through repeated exchanges between Tokyo and Oxford. Minori Oshima visited the Molnár laboratory in Oxford in 2015, followed by Noe Kaneko in 2017. Zoltán Molnár later held an invited visiting professorship at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science from March to May 2025, hosted by Chiaki Ohtaka-Maruyama.
During that time, the scientific toolkit evolved enormously. A project that began with microarrays was eventually expanded using single-cell sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, allowing gene-expression patterns to be placed directly within the developing brain. The paper is therefore not only the result of technological progress, but also of friendships, researcher exchanges and a shared commitment maintained across many years and thousands of miles.
Congratulations to Hitomi Achiwa, Yuichiro Hara, Hideya Kawaji, Minori Oshima, Noe Kaneko, Ayumu Morioka, Anna Hoerder-Suabedissen, Zoltán Molnár and Chiaki Ohtaka-Maruyama.
Read the paper: “Transcriptomic profiling of subpopulations of mouse embryonic subplate neurons,” Journal of Anatomy (2026), DOI: 10.1111/joa.70197. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/joa.70197

10/07/2026

Many genes linked to autism disrupt the same developmental pathways during embryonic development and the first two weeks of life, according to a new study in mice. As the animals mature, those shared changes give way to more gene-specific phenotypes, suggesting that the underlying pathways shift over time.

Multiple genetic mouse models initially show delayed cortical development, but their molecular trajectories soon diverge, a new study finds.

09/07/2026

Tuesday, 21 July 2026, 4pm to 5pm
Gene-environment interactions modulating brain function within and between generations
Speaker: Professor Anthony Hannan (University of Melbourne)
Series: DPAG Neuroscience Seminars
Venue: Sherrington Building - Sherrington Library
Sherrington Library Sherrington Building off Parks Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3PT United Kingdom
Department: Physiology Anatomy and Genetics (Department)
Host: Professor Zoltan Molnar

Overview: We are interested in how gene-environment interactions mediate and modulate brain function, in health and disease. Our findings have revealed key pathways implicated in the therapeutic impacts of environmental stimuli and identified novel therapeutic targets. We have also discovered altered brain-body interactions, including the first evidence of gut dysbiosis (dysregulated gastrointestinal microbiota) in Huntington’s disease (where we model depression, dementia and motor symptoms) and a genetic model of schizophrenia. Furthermore, we have shown that high-fibre diet and prebiotic interventions improved gut function and ameliorated cognitive and affective dysfunction. Ongoing studies are exploring the gut microbiome as a therapeutic target and the possibility that specific environmental factors may modulate brain function via microbiota-gut-brain interactions. These approaches to gene-environment interactions may facilitate the development of enviromimetics (including exercise mimetics as a subclass) for various brain disorders.

In order to understand how gene-environment interactions may sculpt brain development and function between generations, we have also been exploring epigenetic inheritance via the paternal lineage. We have discovered intergenerational effects of various paternal exposures, including exercise, stress, infection, immune activation, antibiotics and other drugs. These lifestyle factors and experiences modulate s***m noncoding RNAs and alter offspring phenotypes. We are exploring epigenetically mediated changes in the brains of offspring. The effects on offspring, including modulation of brain function and behaviour, via epigenetic inheritance, have particular relevance to the pathogenesis of depression and anxiety disorders.
https://events.ox.ac.uk/oxford_event/d3e35e33-4463-f111-ab0d-7c1e52046848