The brain contains two kinds of cell, nerves that transmit information, and glial cells, which are essential for nerve cells to function correctly. The two main glial cells are astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Oligodendrocytes form the myelin sheaths that are critical for rapid transmission of nerve signals. Oligodendrocytes do not develop properly in cerebral palsy and are lost in the demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis, resulting in the debilitating clinical signs of these diseases. Also, during transmission of signals nerves release chemicals which are ?mopped up? up by astrocytes. Disruption of these protective functions of astrocytes results in seizures and nerve death, which occur in epilepsy, stroke, and brain injury. Our work has helped show that a specific glial protein called Kir4.1 is absolutely essential for the specialised functions of glia. In humans, the Kir4.1 gene is linked to general seizure susceptibility, and loss of Kir4.1 causes the loss of myelin and disruption of astrocyte protective functions. Ours is fundamental research into the mechanisms by which Kir4.1 regulate glial cell functions, which will inform on seizure susceptibility, injury, and white matter pathology.

Our Universe contains two mysterious substances: dark energy and dark matter. Dark matter is needed to explain the orbital speeds of stars within galaxies, and dark energy explains the surprising observation that the Universe's expansion is speeding up. In this project we will combine Hubble Space Telescope observations of strong gravitational lensing and Very Large Telescope observations of the orbital properties of stars to constrain the properties of both dark matter and dark energy. Gravitational lensing occurs due to the warping of space time around massive galaxies. As light from a background galaxy pass by a foreground galaxy its path is deflected, and in some cases the deflection is large enough that multiple images of the background source is observed. These rare alignments are called strong lenses and the separation between the images is sensitive to dark matter in the lensing galaxy and the dark energy between us and the source. However these properties are degenerate, and only by combining with external data can we disentangle the effects of dark matter, dark energy and gravity. We will use the orbital properties of stars within the lens galaxy to break this degeneracy: as the mass of the galaxy increases, the stars orbit faster.

Covid Extension

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