News | Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

Scientists map the blackcap bird brain, opening a new era of 3D digital atlases

A migratory bird brain, the Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), has been mapped for the first time using high-resolution light microscopy. The open-source software tools developed, and the detailed processes published, form a foundation for new brain atlases to be built for any species, providing a valuable resource for neuroscience worldwide.

SWC building next to BT Tower

Remembering Adam Kampff (1979-2025)

We are deeply saddened that our colleague and dear friend Adam Kampff has passed away. Adam will be lovingly remembered by his family, friends, colleagues, and the thousands of students he has inspired over the years.

10 December 2025

SWC maintains international animal welfare accreditation

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (SWC) at UCL is delighted to announce that we have maintained our accreditation from the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International.

10 November 2025

SWC Building

SWC part of international team awarded ERC Synergy Grant funding

Three research groups from the University of Cambridge, the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (SWC) at UCL and the University of South Florida (USF) have been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant to study the biology of instinctive behaviour.

6 November 2025

The BrainGlobe Initiative wins 2025 International Prize

The BrainGlobe Initiative, co-founded by neuroscientists at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, UCL and the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, has been awarded the 2025 International Prize by the Neuro-Irv and Helga Cooper Foundation Open Science Prizes Selection Committee.

Complete brain activity map revealed for the first time

The first complete activity map of the brain has been unveiled by a large international collaboration of neuroscientists. The International Brain Laboratory (IBL) researchers published their findings today in two papers in Nature, revealing insights into how decision-making unfolds across the entire brain in mice at the resolution of single cells.

3 September 2025

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Professor Tim Behrens awarded prestigious Faraday Discovery Fellowship

The Royal Society has awarded a Faraday Discovery Fellowship to Professor Tim Behrens, joint Group Leader at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at University College London (UCL) and Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford.

Professor Tiago Branco receives Wellcome Discovery Award

Professor Tiago Branco has secured a Wellcome Discovery Award to support a bold and ambitious seven-year research programme at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre. With this funding, the Branco Lab will investigate how the brain sets sensitivity to threat, and how both genetics and experience shape this threshold. By uncovering the mechanisms of threat sensitivity in the brain, the research could pave the way for new therapeutic targets for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Photo of Dr Mehran Ahmadlou smiling in the lab at SWC

Dr Mehran Ahmadlou to lead new group at the University of Oxford

We are delighted to announce that Dr Mehran Ahmadlou, a Senior Research Fellow at SWC, will join the University of Oxford’s Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics as a Group Leader this September. His new lab will study the neural mechanisms underlying adaptive behaviours, building on his research at SWC exploring how animals decide whether to pursue a current goal or switch to a new one.

Triggered cell death in the tail of striatum using a viral strategy. Each image is an average projection of a part of the striatum. Areas are color coded based on their absence of neurons. Original colors are random to indicate the amount of animals that do not have cells on a particular region. The average projections then creates a mix of those original colours.

Scientists discover new way the brain learns

Neuroscientists at SWC have discovered that the brain uses a dual system for learning through trial and error. This is the first time a second learning system has been identified, which could help explain how habits are formed and provide a scientific basis for new strategies to address conditions related to habitual learning, such as addictions and compulsions. Published today in Nature, the study in mice could also have implications for developing therapeutics for Parkinson’s.

Mouse standing in the centre of an arena with objects around the circle

Should I stay or should I go? Brain switchboard found

Researchers reveal neural circuits in the brainstem that are crucially involved in implementing decisions by controlling three fundamental behavioural states or strategies: perseverance, exploration and disengagement. The study in mice may help to further understand neuropsychiatric conditions including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), autism and major depressive disorder.

Scientists solve the brain’s motion-source separation problem

Neuroscientists have discovered how the brain distinguishes between visual motion occurring in the external world from that caused by the observer moving through it. Known as the “motion-source separation problem,” researchers have long wondered how the brain achieves this critical sensory distinction. This is the first time scientists have pinpointed the precise mechanisms.

19 February 2025