Stuart Greenhill

Aston University, Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment

Dr Stuart Greenhill, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at Aston University, UK. A member of the University’s Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, his research is focused on how synaptic plasticity drives normal network function in the brain and how this can go wrong in conditions such as epilepsy and schizophrenia. He uses a variety of techniques to approach his research, especially in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology, molecular biology, and computational methods. Alongside his fundamental research work, he has a strong interest in technology development and materials science research to advance electrophysiological experiments and open up new ways of understanding how our brains and the networks within them work.

Douglas Caruana

Aston University, College of Health and Life Sciences

Dr. Douglas Caruana, PhD, is a Lecturer in Neuroscience at Aston University and a synaptic neurophysiologist specializing in drug- and disease-related changes in brain chemistry affecting synapses and memory. It is widely accepted that experience-dependent modifications in synaptic function underlie information storage in the brain and that modulatory neurotransmitter systems play a central role in regulating this neuroplasticity. A fundamental problem remains, though, in understanding how dysfunctions in neuromodulation linked to brain pathology (e.g., epilepsy or depression) or drug abuse alter synaptic mechanisms essential to cognition. Dr. Caruana uses electrophysiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, and behavior to determine how modulatory neurotransmitters and nootropic compounds modify synapses in the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortices to affect sensory and mnemonic processing in normal and diseased brains.