The Team
Dr Michael Harte has 20 years' experience in the field of neuropharmacology, specialising in research relating to the characterisation of neurotransmitter pathways involved in cognitive dysfunction.
He graduated from University College Dublin with a BSc in Physiology in 1999, and he gained his PhD from University College Dublin (2003) for work utilising microdialysis to characterise pathways involved in cognitive function.
He worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Sheffield (2003–2005), and Queens University Belfast (2005–2008) on projects investigating neurochemical and pathological deficits in animal models of schizophrenia.
Dr Harte is Senior Lecturer in the Division of Pharmacy and Optometry at the University of Manchester.
Dr Ben Grayson is the CSO and co-founder of b-neuro.
Dr Grayson has more than 20 years of behavioural expertise in Neuro-pharmacology at the University of Bradford, and more recently at the University of Manchester.
Ben received his MPhil at the University of Bradford in 2003, and successfully defended his PhD thesis in May 2012.
Idil Mitsadali is a research technician.
Idil joined the b-neuro team as a technician in 2020, after graduating with an integrated Master's degree in Neuroscience from the University of Manchester in 2019.
She did her Master's project at the b-neuro lab, where she investigated the pro-cognitive and protective effects of voluntary wheel-running in an animal model of schizophrenia.
Syeda Munni is a research technician, part-sponsored by the Rosetrees Trust.
She has been working with us since 2016, after graduating with a Master’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Manchester in 2015.
Emily Williams is a research technician.
Emily has worked at the University of Manchester since 2015 as a specialist apprentice laboratory technician, before joining the b-neuro team in 2019. She has an HNC in Biological Sciences in Industry.
See Emily talking about the apprenticeship scheme.
Katie Landreth is a research technician.
Katie joined the b-neuro team as a technician in 2019, after graduating with a joint honours degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology from The University of Manchester.
Dr John Gigg has over 30 years' experience in the field of neuroscience, and specialises in the neurophysiology of the rodent hippocampal formation in vivo. He incorporates various cognitive tasks to measure object, spatial and episodic-like memory in rodents, and has recently started using touchscreen operant chambers to probe aspects of executive function in mice. The focus for these studies has been on both normal brain function and compromised networks in animal models of abnormal states, including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and ADHD.
He gained his PhD from the Open University, UK (1991), for work determining the electrophysiological correspondents of memory formation for passive avoidance learning in forebrain regions of the day-old chick (supervised by Prof Steven Rose). His postdoctoral positions have included fellowships at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and the University of Newcastle (UK).
Dr Gigg is a Lecturer in the Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester. He provides scientific expertise for the b-neuro in vivo electrophysiology and behavioural phenotyping service.
