Molnár Lab

11/06/2026

"A Preconceptional Stress Model Identifies Thalamostriatal Substrates of Intergenerational Vulnerability"

Anthony C. Vernon PhD
Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology

King's College London
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience
Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience
MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

11am - Friday, 3rd July 2026
Florence Buchanan Lecture Theatre, Sherrington Building, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford - https://events.ox.ac.uk/oxford_event/9188f4f3-7965-f111-ab0c-7ced8d99a758

10/06/2026

DPAG History of Medical Sciences Seminar: 'Literal or Sense for Sense: Problems with translating Cajal' and 'A short history of connectomics from Willis to Cajal and beyond'
https://events.ox.ac.uk/oxford_event/54418190-1064-f111-ab0d-7c1e52046848
Monday, 22 June 2026, 4pm to 5.30pm

NEELY SWANSON
Title: Literal or Sense for Sense: Problems with translating Cajal
Abstract: The shorter works of Ramón y Cajal had been translated in the past, but it was the advent of the personal computer that facilitated the translation of his major work. Previous works had been translated literally, making them accurate but sterile. This was not what Cajal himself intended and Swanson and Swanson took a different approach in their three translations: “New Ideas on the Structure of the Nervous System in Man and Vertebrates,” “Histology of the Nervous System in Man and Vertebrates” and finally, “Advice for a Young Investigator.”

LARRY SWANSON
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Title: A short history of connectomics from Willis to Cajal and beyond
Abstract: Attempts to provide a global model of brain structure-function organization date back over 1500 years. Major conceptual advances by Vesalius, Willis, Cajal and others will be reviewed, and the latest approach based on connectomics will be introduced. This systematic strategy is based on adjacency matrices (connectomes), graph theory, and cluster analysis.

Speaker(s): Professor Larry Swanson (University of Southern California), Neely Swanson

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 Zoltán Molnár, Professor Randy Bruno, Associate Professor Kerry Walker and Professor David Paterson

27/05/2026

Patrick Hughs’ - DPAG

24/05/2026

Congratulations to Florina Szabó whose Journal of Anatomy paper (https://doi.org/10.1111 has been recognized as a top viewed article* in:
The Journal of Anatomy:
Chronic silencing of subsets of cortical layer 5 pyramidal neurons has a long-
term influence on the laminar distribution of parvalbumin interneurons and the
perineuronal nets
*Among work published in Journal of Anatomy between January 1 , 2024 - December 31, 2024, view count taken at 12 months after publication.

13/05/2026

There are numerous protein-mediated transient interactions between cellular elements in the developing brain, such as between migrating cortical neurons and subplate, and thalamic projections and cortical progenitors. Proteomic data generation is now essential for ligand–receptor pair prediction and validation. We examined 18 anatomically distinct brain regions, including the pia mater of a single human 20GW brain from the Human Developmental Biology Resource (HDBR), University of Newcastle. These samples underwent in-depth analysis of both the total and posttranslationally modified proteomes. Non-modified protein profiles revealed substantial differences across brain regions and structures. By integrating our proteomic data with publicly available single-cell RNA sequencing datasets from the same developmental stage, we identified high-confidence ligand–receptor pairs (e.g., L1CAM:CD9, CNTN4:PTPRG, LGALS1:ITGB1) likely involved in thalamocortical interactions.

A well-preserved 20 post-conception week human brain was obtained and finely dissected into 18 anatomically distinct regions, including the pia mater. Each region underwent in-depth proteomic analysi...

11/05/2026

"Cajal's interactions with Sherrington" Zoltán Molnár on the opening of the Cajal Exhibition at Oxford, on 29th April 2026.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cPVl40COIM&list=PLIIXxQ_YnhwrGcbASYhXtpe1Lk-gu04dO&index=3
The talk is based on this two publications with Juan De Carlos and Richard Brown.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2835
https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.24189

07/05/2026

Időpont: 2026. május 20. (szerda) 13:00 óra
Helyszín: MTA Székház, Díszterem

01/05/2026

Can 3D printing help repair the brain? Oxford Martin programme reports key advances
27 April 2026
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3d printing for brain repair
Researchers have built and tested structured human brain tissue, offering new tools to study how the brain develops and responds to injury.

Brain damage, whether caused by trauma, stroke or disease, can have life-changing consequences, affecting memory, movement and communication. Yet despite decades of research, effective treatments for severe brain injury remain out of reach.

At the same time, scientists face a different but related problem. The human brain is extraordinarily complex, and there are still limited ways to study how its cells develop, connect and respond to damage.

Against this backdrop, the Oxford Martin Programme on 3D Printing for Brain Repair (2020–2025) set out to explore a bold question: can structured brain tissue be built from human cells and used to better understand how the brain works and how it might be repaired?

The Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford brings together the best minds from different fields to tackle the most pressing issues of the 21st…

23/04/2026

Lamination is a fundamental principle in the mammalian cerebral cortex. Historically, the cortex has been divided into 6 basic layers, but there are many sublayers are apparent within these layers, especially in the primate brains. In primates Layer 5 has historically been subdivided into two laminae, layers 5A and 5B. We have examined the lamination pattern of primary visual cortex (V1) in historic material from the McBrain Resource Centre of Yale University (https://medicine.yale.edu/neuroscience/macbrain/; https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.70137) and have found that layer 5 can consistently be subdivided into three clearly defined laminae that we denoted as 5Aα, 5Aβ and 5B. This trilaminar arrangement within layer 5 is prominent around V1 of the opercular occipital cortex, representing central visual field, but less prominent or absent around the cortex overlying the calcarine fissure where V1 represents peripheral and far peripheral visual fields. We show that in the bilaterally enucleated macaque a similar pattern is present. This supports the concept that the geniculo-cortical input and the developing occipital and calcarine regions do not require visual experience to form the unique laminated structure of V1. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.70137 The paper is part of the special edition of Journal of Anatomy associated to the Human Brain Development special issue.

22/04/2026

Registration is free on: https://buytickets.at/oxfordneuroscience/2176969