Nikolaev lab

In the Nikolaev lab, we are interested in understanding how the auditory and visual information from the outside world are combined and compared in the brain to allow animals to perform day-to-day tasks, such as localisation of moving objects and social interaction.

Lab Members:

Nic Blacknell

Nicole-Mae Blacknell

ngblacknell1@sheffield.ac.uk

PhD Student

My project aims to elucidate the molecular and physiological changes within retinal neurons from their early postnatal stages through late adulthood. I will use electrophysiological, single-cell patch clamp recordings and morphological immunostaining techniques.

Lab Collaborations:

In collaboration with another member of our department, Dr Paul Gokhale, we are trying to build very simple neural circuits with given properties (e.g. logical AND, logical NOT etc.) out of cancer stem cells (NT-2 and Neuroblastoma cell lines) differentiated into neurons. We would like to optimise the conditions of differentiation into different types of neurons, make cells grow axons in a particular direction and form synapses with particular neurons in a controlled way. 

Past Lab Members:

1. Sandra Toledo Rivera

2. Katharina Bergmann

3. Konstantinos Lygdas

4. Elliot Birkett: Studying integration on visual and olfactory information in the zebrafish brain.  

5. Berardo Manuel Sanchez Tafolla

6. Heather McCourty

7. Jianbo Zhou