Principal Investigator
Dan Brierley
Group Leader / Sir Henry Dale Research Fellow
Dan established his independent research group at UCL in January 2022 following the award of a Sir Henry Dale research fellowship from the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society. Prior to this fellowship, he conducted postdoctoral research on brainstem GLP-1 signalling in Stefan Trapp’s lab at UCL, and doctoral research on therapeutic appetite and metabolism regulation by phytocannabinoids under Claire Williams and Ben Whalley at the University of Reading.
Current Lab Members
Lauren Jones
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Lauren joined the lab in April 2023, after completing her PhD studying the neurophysiology and pathophysiology of enterochromaffin cells with Damien Keating at Flinders University. Lauren is now spearheading a major in vivo research project investigating Western diet obesity-induced dysfunction in gut-brain satiation circuitry.
Nick Monaco
PhD student (Wellcome Trust Optical Biology Programme)
Nick joined the lab in 2023 to conduct a rotation project as part of his PhD on the Wellcome Trust Optical Biology programme at UCL, and is now undertaking his doctoral research investigating how brainstem tanycytes modulate gut-brain neural circuit function in health and disease.
Shirley Nannono-Senabulya
Project Student – MSc Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Shirley joined the lab in 2023 to conduct her research project during her MSc in Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutics at UCL. She is developing a novel behavioural platform and using it to interrogate the function of feeding behaviour circuitry in the brainstem.
Phoebe Claxton
Project Student – MSci Neuroscience
Phoebe joined the lab in 2024 to conduct her final year research project for her MSci in Neuroscience at UCL. She is using neuroanatomical /transcriptomic and behavioural approaches to investigate the neural circuit mechanisms underlying the therapeutic and undesirable side effects of anti-obesity GLP-1RA drugs.
Sophie McManus
Project Student – MSci Pharmacology
Sophie joined the lab in 2024 to conduct her final year research project for her MSci in Pharmacology at UCL. She is using behavioural and neuroanatomical approaches to investigate the neural circuit mechanisms underlying the therapeutic and undesirable side effects of anti-obesity GLP-1RA drugs.