Project leader

Dr. Will Norton   Phone:+44 (0) 116 252 5078 Fax:+44 (0) 116 252 3330 Email

Institute presentation

The University of Leicester has an international reputation for excellence in research and teaching. The department of Biology is part of the College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychiatry, which includes groups that specialise in research on neural circuits and behaviour, sensory motor control and animal models of human disease.

The department of Biology has excellent facilities for research. These include well‐furnished laboratories, a state-of-the-art facility to house zebrafish and setups for electrophysiology, behavioural analyses and multiphoton confocal microscopy. The department also provides excellent pastoral care for students, including the provision of a mentor for new members and courses to develop research skills.

Institute description

The aim of this project is to screen for novel drugs treatments for ADHD and ASD using zebrafish as a model organism. Novel zebrafish mutant lines harbouring mutations in genes that are linked to ADHD- and ASD in human patients will first be generated. The behaviour of these mutants will be characterised (focusing on hyperactivity and impulsivity) and a drug screen performed using a behavioural platform already established in our laboratory. This research will provide excellent training in using zebrafish as a translational model for biomedical research as well as providing close interactions with the other MiND groups studying animal models.