I am a Research Fellow in the Physiology Department and Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. I did my BSc (Biomedical Science), Honours and PhD at the University of Auckland then moved to Amsterdam for 6 years as a Postdoctoral Fellow. In 2016 I returned to the University of Auckland on a Neurological Foundation Repatriation Fellowship. This Fellowship was co-funded with an Auckland Medical Research Foundation Project grant and allowed me to establish in vivo imaging in Auckland. Together with a Marsden Fast-Start, this funding has enabled my team to investigate development and function of the auditory cortex in a mouse model of autism spectrum disorder.

I now lead the Circuit Mechanisms of Disease Research Group. Our research focusses on how brain circuits control behaviour and what happens when this goes awry in diseases including autism spectrum disorder, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Spinal Cord Injury. We perform recordings in live mice (‘in vivo’) using a range of different imaging technologies to track cellular activity in real time, during behaviour or sensory input.

In 2018 I obtained equipment funding from Maurice Paykel Trust and Lottery Health Research to customise a two-photon microscope for high resolution in vivo brain imaging. With funding from the Faculty of Science Research Development Fund and a Neurological Founation Project Grant we are now applying this technology to better understand cellular activity in the auditory cortex in autism spectrum disorder. In 2021 I received an Eisdell Moore Centre Seed Funding Grant to expand this research by examining the behavioural responses triggered by sound. This will enable us to link abnormal auditory processing to anxiety in autism spectrum disorder.