Dr Stuart Greenhill

Supervisor Details

Contact Details

Scientific Background

Research Interests

My research is focussed around the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in physiological and disease states. By using a combination of electrophysiology, functional imaging and molecular biology, we can probe the receptors and cellular processes that cause neural circuits and synapses to alter their strengths and functions in response to the changing stimulus of the outside world. This natural process would appear to be subject to critical developmental periods and be disrupted in several psychiatric and neurological conditions, so further study of its function and dysfunction is crucial to our understanding of neuroscience and psychiatry.

Research Groups

Pharmacology and Translational Neuroscience Research Group (PTNRG)

Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment (IHN)

Supervision Style

In three words or phrases: Outcome-oriented, spontaneous, guiding.

Provision of Training

I will get you trained and confident in all the necessary techniques in the laboratory – after that you will be working with existing lab members under close supervision. You will be expected to help drive the project by adding your own suggestions for new directions and responding to results as they emerge.

Progression Monitoring and Management

The best PhDs are those where the student takes ownership of the project and moves it along themselves. I will help you gain the confidence and skills to do this and am in the laboratory daily to provide advice and troubleshooting. Alongside this daily informal communication, we will have regular catch-up meetings to make sure that you are progressing well.

Communication

I am usually available face-to-face outside of my teaching commitments, and can always be reached via email when not in the office.

PhD Students can expect scheduled meetings with me:

In a group meeting

At least once per week

In year 1 of PhD study

At least once per week

In year 2 of PhD study

At least once per week

In year 3 of PhD study

At least once per week

These meetings will be face to face and I am usually contactable for an instant response (if required) on every working day.

Working Pattern

Certain tasks in my lab need to occur at set times, and students need to be able to commit to a rota/timetable shared with other members of the team.

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:

Mapping Plasticity Across Species: Increasing our understanding of translational research

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).

Mapping Plasticity Across Species: Increasing our understanding of translational research

Secondary Supervisor(s): Dr Helen Eachus

University of Registration: Aston University

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

Project Outline

My lab, and my collaborators, are generally interested in how the brain develops and how synaptic plasticity drives the normal creation of complex circuits. We also want to know how this process, and the neural oscillations and activity that arise from it, can go wrong sometimes and give rise to a number of neurological and psychiatric conditions. To better understand all of these inter-dependent phenomena, we need to focus on the physiology of neurons, synapses and networks throughout the lifecourse. Doing research of this nature requires investigations of cell and network activity at a number of levels – in my lab we primarily use electrophysiology from a cell/synapse level (e.g. patch clamp) all the way up to behaviour-linked EEG recordings of rodents, alongside imaging and molecular biology. But the molecular and functional manipulations we can make with each model organism, or the in vitro analogues we use (such as organotypically-cultured brain tissue from humans or rodents) need to be combined in such a way that is useful to our understanding of neuronal physiology.

To that end, it’s important to map and compare the functions of cells and circuits across organisms and to make sure that what we do in, for example, a zebrafish can be successfully translated to a rodent and on to a human. There has been a lot of research as to the development and plasticity of the individual species, but more needs to be done to compare circuit development and cellular plasticity across species so we can perform more effective translational studies.

Aim

This project will use a combination of electrophysiology, imaging and molecular biology to perform manipulations of synaptic plasticity in zebrafish and rats, mapping the plasticity phenotypes across suitable brain areas and developmental time periods. We will:

Perform patch-clamp studies with spike timing-dependent plasticity protocols in ex vivo brain preparations from rats and zebrafish, followed by histological reconstruction and imaging to show dendritic structure and identify cell types.

Develop an in vivo model of acute zebrafish plasticity that can recapitulate important aspects of what would be expected in a similarly-developed rat.

Investigate how receptor expression and dendritic spine properties are altered by cumulative experience-dependent plasticity and what cross-species similarities (and differences) exist.

Methods Involved

We will use a range of electrophysiological, molecular biology, histology and imaging techniques, alongside computational analysis and behavioural observations. Experimental approaches include:

Patch-clamp electrophysiology: using both in vivo and in vitro recordings of single cells within functional networks, we can gain understanding of synaptic and cellular activity and use this to carefully manipulate synaptic plasticity in a highly physiological manner.

Field and EEG recordings: allow us to look at ensemble activity from large groups of neurons up to the whole brain, and compare our cellular results to ensemble and oscillatory activity.

Laser and fluorescent imaging: allow us to reconstruct individual neurons, trace long-range neural projections and map protein expression across brain areas.

Significance: This project will greatly enhance our ability to draw conclusions across commonly-used model species, help us gain a better understanding of neurodevelopment and pave the way for future projects investigating disease states in a focussed, translational manner.

References

Greenhill, Ranson and Fox (2015) - Hebbian and Homeostatic Plasticity Mechanisms in Regular Spiking and Intrinsic Bursting Cells of Cortical Layer 5. Neuron, 88(3), 539-52.

Suppermpool et al (2024) - Sleep pressure modulates single-neuron synapse number in zebrafish. Nature 629, 639-645.