SWC PhD Students Sarah and Jai

PhD Applications Now Open

Launch your career in neuroscience

Apply by 3 November

Scientist looking down a microscope symbolizing innovation

Innovation

Nurturing translation and tech transfer

Two scientists looking at an image of a brain on a screen

Our mission

Discovering how the brain gives rise to behaviour

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TRANSFORMATIVE TRAINING

Creating future leaders in neuroscience

Two neuroscientists collaborating next to a screen with a brain on

RESEARCH CULTURE

Interdisciplinary collaboration on the brain

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.

A new theory of planning

New research from Dr Kris Jensen and colleagues at SWC, UCL and the University of Oxford explores how the prefrontal cortex makes plans. Their work combines knowledge of neural processes known to occur in other brain systems with recent observations that different prefrontal neurons represent different steps of future behaviour. The result is a new theoretical model of how the prefrontal cortex plans behaviour, called a ‘spacetime attractor’, that is now published as a preprint.

10 October 2025

Do parrots really speak? Lessons in lexical access from budgerigars

Have you ever struggled to find the right word? Perhaps it was on the tip of your tongue, or your mind went blank altogether. This momentary lapse highlights a process known as ‘lexical access’ – the brain’s mechanism for retrieving words. SWC Seminar speaker Professor Michael A. Long is striving to understand how this process works. In his lab at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Long studies a type of parrot called budgerigars. But what can parrots really teach us about human communication?

Photo of two budgerigars with text overlaid "SWC Speaker Series"

Centralising training in animal research

Training in animal research is often complex, as facilities must meet strict legal and ethical requirements as well as ensure staff competence and animal welfare. At the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, a centralised framework for training is tackling this challenge, bringing together standardised tools, digital platforms, and close collaboration between researchers and animal care staff.

Why join SWC?

Career development is personal, and it can look different for different people. As SWC expands there are lots of opportunities to become involved and carve out a meaningful career path with us. We’re proud to be a place where talent is recognised and developed.

Ground Floor Lecture Theatre

SWC Seminar: Competition in brain development and a novel approach to neural coding

Dr Michael Stryker

Ground Floor Lecture Theatre

SWC Seminar: A network mechanism for perceptual learning

Dr Carl Schoonover and Dr Andrew Fink

Allen Institute and Northwestern University

Ground Floor Lecture Theatre

SWC Seminar: Region-Specific Roles of GABAA Receptors in Hippocampal Memory Processing and Network Dynamics

Harvard Medical School