We are pleased to welcome Maaike van Swieten to the Unit as an MRC-funded D.Phil. student in Professor Peter Magill’s Group.

As part of Maaike’s M.Sc. in Neuroscience & Cognition, she completed a research internship at the University of North Carolina, USA, where she used optogenetic manipulations, neuroanatomical tracing techniques and behavioural assays to elucidate the role of lateral hypothalamic neurons in reward processing and feeding. During Maaike’s D.Phil. thesis work in the Unit, she will use similar techniques, together with electrophysiological recordings in vivo, to define the mechanisms by which basal ganglia cells and circuits support purposeful behaviours.