Professor Alicia Hidalgo

Supervisor Details

Contact Details

School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham

Scientific Background

Research Interests

Our lab aims to understand how the nervous system is formed, and how it works. Structure and function come together in the course of development, and influence each other throughout life, endowing the nervous system with plasticity. As the animal grows and nervous system volume and cell number increase, the two cell types in the nervous system - neurons and glial cells - make adjustments that modify migration patterns, axonal trajectories, cell division and cell survival. These plastic adjustments result in the robust, reproducible formation of the nervous system across individuals, and over evolutionary time. Conversely, these cell interactions fail in diseases of the nervous system and brain (e.g. neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorders and brain tumours) and upon injury (e.g. upon spinal cord injury and stroke).

We use the fruit-fly Drosophila because it is a very powerful model organism to address questions swiftly, in vivo and with single cell resolution. Our approach combines genetics, molecular biology, cell culture, computational analysis and in vivo confocal microscopy in fixed specimens and in time-lapse. We collaborate with biochemists (Prof. N.J. Gay, Cambridge), electrophysiologists (Dr I. Robinson, Plymouth) and experts using mice and rats as model organisms (Prof. A. Logan, IBR Birmingham and Dr F. Matsuzaki, Riken, Japan).

Research Groups

Hidalgo Lab

Birmingham Fly Facility

Centre for Neurogenetics

Structural and Molecular Cell Biology

Supervision Style

In three words or phrases: Goal-oriented, organised, collaborative

Provision of Training

I will be your direct supervisor, but you will be trained on different techniques and methods by different people in my team, as well as myself.

As you progress, you might also need to learn and use techniques which could be new and unfamiliar to our lab. In these cases, we will find advice from others and from publications. It’s good not to be scared of learning new things.

Progression Monitoring and Management

I meet with each of my PhD students once a week to discuss progress. We set out expectations of what could and should be achieved on a weekly and monthly basis, we discuss research questions and aims, hypotheses, how to test them, experimental design and data quality. If problems emerge, we discuss a plan of action together.

We also have group meetings once a week, at which each team member presents a progress report, we discuss literature and findings, etc.

Communication

I lead an open, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic team, in which people talk, give opinions and discuss. We meet up, for lunch, go out, have team activities together. I prefer face-to-face conversations, we also share WhatsApp and Slack channels, and of course email is also used routinely. We communicate a lot!

PhD Students can expect scheduled meetings with me:

In a group meeting

At least once a week

In year 1 of PhD study

At least once a week

In year 2 of PhD study

At least once a week

In year 1 of PhD study

At least once a fortnight, often still once a week, it varies

These meetings will be mainly face to face, and I am usually contactable for an instant response every working day. However, not necessarily all day. I divide my day in two chunks: in the morning, my door is always open, and I am available instantly. In the afternoons I close my door because I need to concentrate, and it is best not to disturb me and talk to me next morning instead.

Working Pattern

The timing of work in my lab is flexible, within reason. I do not police arrival and departure times and I expect students to manage their own time, but I also expect them to overlap with the other team members for most of the day. This is very important for training and sharing know-how.

Notice Period for Feedback

I need at least 1 week’s notice to provide feedback on written work of up to 5000 words.

MIBTP Project Details

Current Projects (2025-26)

Primary supervisor for:

How experience shapes the brain: molecular mechanisms of brain plasticity and degeneration

See the PhD Opportunities section to see if this project is currently open for applications via MIBTP.

Please Note: The main page lists projects via BBSRC Research Theme(s) quoted and then relevant Topic(s).

How experience shapes the brain: molecular mechanisms of brain plasticity and degeneration

Secondary Supervisor(s): Professor Stephane De Brito

University of Registration: University of Birmingham

BBSRC Research Themes: Understanding the Rules of Life (Neuroscience and Behaviour)

Project Outline

The aim of the project is to discover and test candidate molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the switch between structural brain plasticity and degeneration. The brain is made up of mostly water and molecules such as proteins, lipids and sugars that decay every day, so we eat and sleep to restore daily our cell biology. Synapses and changes in cell shape are made and unmade every day, as we go about our lives. How does the brain stay the same? Does it, or does it change as we go through life, as we adapt to life challenges, as we grow, as we age? And if cells change, connectivity patterns in the brain change: what are the consequences to behaviour, what we do, how we feel? We aim to understand how the brain changes as we go through life, how experience shapes the brain, why does the brain degenerate over time. The human brain is plastic: structural plasticity enable us to form new synapses and connectivity patterns as we learn and adapt to life challenges, encoding memory. Structural homeostasis constrains the brain’s ability to change, thus maintaining neural circuits stable. Exercise and learning increase structural plasticity and sleep promotes homeostasis, whilst brain diseases are linked to loss of the balance between plasticity and homeostasis, such as brain tumours (e.g. gliomas), neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s), neuro-inflammation and psychiatric disorders (e.g. depression). The cellular processes underlying structural brain change include neurogenesis and gliogenesis, cell death and cell loss, changes in cell shape (axons, dendrites, glial projections), synapse formation and loss, altogether leading to neural circuit modification and modification of behaviour. As behaviour is a source of experience, we aim to find out how cycles of experience and behaviour modify our brain throughout life. The molecular mechanisms underlying structural brain change are scarcely known. Discovering them will help answer how the brain works, how we can maintain brain health and treat brain disease.

Methods

The experimental work will focus using the fruit-fly Drosophila as a model organism and with our findings we will strive to link our findings to understanding human conditions. The approach will combine a wide range of techniques including: genetics, molecular cell biology including CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology and transgenesis, microscopy, including laser scanning confocal microscopy and calcium imaging in time-lapse, computational imaging approaches for analysis of images and movies, stimulating neuronal function with opto- and thermos-genetics in vivo, and recording and analysing fruit-fly behaviour.

References

Visit our lab website: https://more.bham.ac.uk/hidalgo/

Sun et al (2024) A neurotrophin functioning with a Toll regulates structural plasticity in a dopaminergic circuit. bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.04.522695. eLife.

Li G and Hidalgo A (2020) Adult neurogenesis in the Drosophila brain: the evidence and the void. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 21(18), 6653.

Guiyi Li and Alicia Hidalgo (2021) The Toll route to structural brain plasticity. Frontiers in Physiology. Frontiers in Physiology DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.679766.

Li G, Forero MG, Wentzell JS, Durmus I, Wolf R, Anthoney NC, Parker M, Jiang R, Hasenauer J, Strausfeld NJ, Heisenberg M, Hidalgo A (2020) A Toll-receptor map underlies structural brain plasticity eLife, 9: e52743 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.52743.

oeLife Digest article 17 March 2020 dedicated to our paper: “How experience shapes the brain” https://elifesciences.org/digests/52743/how-experience-shapes-the-brain.

Molecular and cellular mechanisms of central nervous system regeneration

See the PhD Opportunities section to see if this project is currently open for applications via MIBTP.

Please Note: The main page lists projects via BBSRC Research Theme(s) quoted and then relevant Topic(s).

Molecular and cellular mechanisms of central nervous system regeneration

Secondary Supervisor(s): Professor Zubair Ahmed

University of Registration: University of Birmingham

BBSRC Research Themes: Integrated Understanding of Health (Ageing, Regenerative Biology)

Project Outline

The aim of the project is to discover and test candidate molecular mechanisms underlying central nervous system (CNS) (ie spinal cord and brain) regeneration. The human CNS does not regenerate after injury or disease (eg after spinal cord injury and some brain damage). However, some animals can regenerate their CNS. Furthermore, the human brain is plastic, meaning it can undergo change, enabling neurogenesis, gliogenesis, formation of new synapses and connections in response to challenges. This means that regeneration of cells and connections in the spinal cord or brain after damage could be possible. Animals that can regenerate their CNS do so by inducing de novo neurogenesis followed by integration of new neurons into functional neural circuits. In humans, new neurons are made daily during learning, and these new neurons also integrate into functional circuits. This means that cells can ‘know’ how to re-establish cell populations and circuits. In the normal undamaged brain, the presence of adult neural stem cells may enable memory and resilience upon stress. It also means that it may possible to tap into the regenerative potential of the CNS to direct regeneration after injury and damage. Here, we will investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying regeneration in the CNS: neurogenesis, gliogenesis, cell growth, generation of new connectivity patterns and synapses, and integration into neural circuits to result in functional, restored behaviour.

Methods

We will use the fruit-fly Drosophila as a model organism, combining a wide range of techniques including: genetics, molecular cell biology including CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology and transgenesis, transcriptomics, mass spec, microscopy, including laser scanning confocal microscopy and calcium imaging in time-lapse, computational imaging approaches for analysis of images and movies, stimulating neuronal function with opto- and thermos-genetics in vivo, and recording and analysing fruit-fly behaviour. The second supervisor is an expert in CNS regeneration using mammalian model organisms, and close interactions will facilitate the conversion of the relevance of our findings to the mammalian and human condition.

References

Visit our lab website: https://more.bham.ac.uk/hidalgo/

Harrison N, Connolly E, Gascón Gubieda A, Yang Z, Altenhein B, Losada-Perez M, Moreira M, Hidalgo A (2021) Regenerative neurogenesis is induced from glia by Ia-2 driven neuron-glia communication. eLife10:e58756 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.58756

Losada-Perez M, Harrison N, Hidalgo A. (2016) Molecular mechanism of central nervous system repair by the Drosophila NG2 homologue kon-tiki. Journal of Cell Biology 214, 587

Kato, Forero and Hidalgo (2011) The glial regenerative response to CNS injury is enabled by Pros-Notch ad Pros-NFkB feed-back. PLoS Biology 9, e1001133.

Co-supervisor on a project with Dr Carolina Rezaval.

Previous Projects (2024-25)

Primary supervisor for:

Molecular mechanisms of brain plasticity, degeneration and regeneration

Previous Projects (2023-24)

Primary supervisor for:

Molecular mechanisms of brain plasticity, degeneration and regeneration