Around 150 members of the Sussex Neuroscience community came together to share, connect and celebrate our neuroscience research at the University of Sussex.

Sussex Neuroscience is a University of Sussex Centre of Excellence, and a thriving community of inter-disciplinary research staff and students from across Life Sciences, Engineering & Informatics, Psychology and the Brighton & Sussex Medical School. The annual Sussex Neuroscience Day, which happened on a sunny day on 9th May, gave an opportunity for members of the community to showcase their work through short talks, to hear the latest developments in Alzheimer’s research from our guest speaker Prof Bart De Strooper, and to enjoy connecting with colleagues over lunch and an evening social. 

Hosted at the Fulton building on campus, the day was made up of talks from faculty members across a wide range of neuroscience topics, such as Dr Ruth Murrell-Lagnado (Life Sciences) on “Understanding potassium channels as drug targets for treatment of pain” and Dr Maxine Sherman (Engineering and Informatics) on “How do we estimate subjective confidence in what we see?”.

The day also gave PhD and Postdoctoral researchers opportunity to present their work, with prizes going to Simen Bruøygard for his talk on “Mapping colour onto spatial processing in Zebrafish bipolar cells” and Kate Peters for her talk on “How does environmental enrichment reduce craving in mice?”.

Throughout the day participants were invited to interact with several Sussex Neuroscience booths to find out more about areas of activity such as Public Engagement, Communications, Strategy & Funding, Open Science, Green Neuroscience and the student society, NeuroSoc. Participants were able to interact with a fun demo from Dr Sarah King that shows how electrical activity in the brain controls our movement and actions, and to find out how to make your neuroscience research more ‘green’ and climate friendly with Nick Souter and Dr Charlotte Rae.

We also had the honour of hosting Prof Bart De Strooper (UKDRI, UCL), a leading molecular biologist and expert in Alzheimer’s Disease. Professor De Strooper presented his latest research and thinking on “Alzheimer’s Disease: the exciting road ahead”, with a vibrant presentation and Q&A session for faculty and students.

 With the sun beginning to set on the day, the Sussex Neuroscience Day was rounded off with an evening of socializing at the Institute of Development Studies bar with a delicious barbeque and time connecting with colleagues.