Prof. Ian Duguid

Team Neural circuits and motor behaviour (Duguid Lab)

Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences (CDBS)

University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Ian Duguid studied Pharmacology as a bachelor student at the University of Aberdeen (1994-1998). During his PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. Trevor Smart at the London School of Pharmacy (1998-2001), he investigated presynaptic plasticity mechanisms in the cerebellum which he continued with Trevor as an MRC postdoctoral fellow at University College London (2001-2006). During his senior postdoctoral years Ian was awarded a Wellcome Trust Advanced Training Fellowship to work with Prof. Michael Hausser at UCL (2006-2009) to investigate sensory information processing in single cerebellar neurons in vivo. In 2009, Ian was awarded a Wellcome Career Development fellowship to start his own lab at the University of Edinburgh (2009-2014) and more recently a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship (2015-2021) to investigate the cellular and circuit mechanisms underpinning cortical motor control of adaptable movement.

How is movement encoded in the brain? Using the neocortex and cerebellum as model systems, our research focusses on unravelling the complex cellular and circuit mechanisms underpinning simple and skilled motor behaviours. By employing a multi-level cellular and systems neuroscience approach combining in vivo patch-clamp electrophysiology, two-photon imaging, viral-based manipulation techniques and quantitative behaviour, we aim to generate new insights into the neural computations that underlie different motor behaviours.