A blog post by DPAG's Katherine Brimblecombe medium.com/@kbrimbs/why...

Our team had a fantastic time at the 2026 CRN Annual Investigators Meeting in Barcelona! It was inspiring to hear the bold ideas shaping the future of Parkinson's disease research and connect with both new and returning CRN Fellows. It remind us what we can achieve when we work together!

📣 New preprint alert 📣 A new study from Cragg Lab uncovers an unexpected off-target mechanism of a widely used serotonin 5-HT4 receptor agonist, with potential therapeutic implications for neurological disorders. Congratulations to Qinbo Qiao for leading this fantastic work! #serotonin #dopamine

Congratulations to Dr. Kathryn Todd on being selected as an ASAP CRN Discovery Fellow! Her project will investigate how vulnerable versus resistant dopamine neurons are regulated in Parkinson’s disease. Read more ⬇️ @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org @oxforddpag.bsky.social

Project Manager role at the University of Oxford coordinating an international Parkinson’s research consortium on sleep, circadian rhythms and open science. Closing date: 29th May www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/job/project-...

Congratulations to Pete Magill, one of our ASAP core-PIs, on his appointment as a founding Group Leader at the new UK DRI Parkinson’s Research Centre. A fantastic step forward for #parkinsons research! Read more: www.ukdri.ac.uk/news-and-eve... @ukdri.ac.uk @rnd.ac.uk

📣 New publication alert 📣 Check out the exciting work from Howe Lab published in @nature.com exploring how #dopamine supports goal-directed navigation in mice! Huge congratulations to Eleanor Brown, Mai-Anh Vu, and Safa Bouabid for leading this work!

🎉Exciting week for our ASAP Team Cragg at the 2026 GRC Basal Ganglia in beautiful Tuscany 🎉 We are proud that four of our PIs, Steph Cragg, Mark Howe, Dinos Meletis, and Yulong Li, are presenting talks in neural circuit function and dysfunction. Looking forward to a great meeting!

📣 New preprint alert 📣 A collaborative study from the Howe and Cragg labs reveals an anatomical hotspot in the striatum where #dopamine and #acetylcholine interact to shape learning and movement. Congratulations to Safa Bouabid and Mai-Anh Vu for leading this work! #openscience #collaboration

🎉 The Meletis lab is hiring 🎉 Are you interested in neuron subtypes and motivated behaviour? Join us as a fully funded PhD student at Karolinska Institutet. 📅 Application deadline: February 10 More details ⬇️ @ki.se @meletis.bsky.social #basalganglia #phd #neuroscience

Meet Linda Kaupp, a visiting Master student coming from the Karolinska Instituet! She will be conducting her master's thesis at the Cragg Lab on the interaction between astrocytes, cholinergic interneurons and dopaminergic neurons. #MeetOurTeam @oxforddpag.bsky.social @stephcragg.bsky.social

At #SfN25 in San Diego this week? #Adenosine fans, this one is for you! Catch Dr. Kathryn Todd at MIN40 | Room 6CR on Wednesday at 2:30 pm PST! Want more? Dive deeper with the must-read review by the full group of speakers and chairs! @stephcragg.bsky.social

It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of Dr. Richard Exley. Richard was Steph Cragg's first postdoc, who is remembered as a brilliant scientist and a joyful colleague. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this difficult time, and may his memory continue to inspire us all.

Welcome to the team, Mara Wuelfing! Mara is completing her Biochemistry Part II Project in the Cragg Lab, where she will be investigating the source of tonic adenosine in the nucleus accumbens under the supervision of Kat Todd, an ASAP-funded postdoc. #MeetOurTeam

Welcome to the team, Katherine Wang and Isabella Wijsmann! Katherine joins as an MRC-funded Research Assistant and Isabella as a DPhil student at Cragg Lab, where they will be working on how novel glycine receptors shape #dopamine and #acetylcholine signalling in health and #PD. #MeetOurTeam

🎉Congratulations Dr. Qinbo Qiao of the Cragg lab! 🎉 Your hard work has paid off, and Team Cragg is so proud of you. We can't wait to see where life takes you, and good luck at your new position in Shanghai! @stephcragg.bsky.social @oxforddpag.bsky.social

We were thrilled to (mostly) meet in-person last week for the 3rd Annual Symposium of ASAP Collaboration for Team Cragg! Thank you all for an inspiring meeting of science, sharing and #collaboration. We have built a great momentum, and we are ready for new discoveries in #Parkinsons research!

📣 New preprint alert 📣 A new collaborative study from @meletis.bsky.social and @jakobssonasap.bsky.social on mapping the molecular changes in the mouse and human striatum in #Parkinsons! Congratulations to Marta Graziano and Ioannis Mantas for spearheading this fantastic work! #OpenScience

Meet Tony Barbay, our new MRC-funded Postdoctoral Researcher at Cragg Lab! He will explore the role of astrocytes as neuromodulators in the striatum in health and PD. We look forward to working with you! Learn more: www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/team/tony-ba... #Parkinsons #astrocytes #The_MRC #MeetOurTeam

📣The Wade-Martins Lab is hiring 📣 Are you interested in developing novel biomarkers and testing therapeutic compounds using iPSC-derived dopamine neurons from PD patients? Join us as a Research Assistant at the University of Oxford. Deadline is noon (UK time) on Sept 5th! bit.ly/4lURYW9

We're kicking off our new series: Initiative Spotlight 🔦 starting with Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP)! @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org aims to speed discovery and drive progress toward a #ParkinsonsDisease cure through collaboration and open science. Learn more: bit.ly/3Ys7sIo

In case you missed it, be sure to watch July's instalment of the Discover ASAP! Ricardo Márquez Gómez from Wade-Martins Lab discussed their scalable microfluidic platform that enables the study of human neuron microcircuitry, connectivity, and regeneration in vitro 🔬 #OpenScience #PD #iPSCs

Fantastic work spearheaded by @safabouabid.bsky.social from Mark Howe Lab!

Check out Katherine Brimblecombe's news article on outreach activities! Katherine reflects on how her outreach work with primary school kids has led to changes in the way she thinks about science communication. #SciComm #ScienceOutreach #WomenInSTEM #STEM

📣 New publication alert 📣 Check out our collaborative review on axonal molecular and circuit mechanisms governing dopamine exocytosis in health and PD. Congratulations to Kathryn Todd from Cragg Lab and Kaitlyn Cramb from Wade-Martins Lab for spearheading this publication!

Are you at the ISN-ASN Meeting held in New York this week? Don't miss out the talk from our very own Steph Cragg this Friday from 3 to 5 pm EDT! The "Flowing Neurochemicals in the Brain" symposium is being chaired by CRN members Yulong Li and Lin Tian.

📣 A new book announcement 📣 The Handbook of #dopamine, from Steph Cragg (@stephcragg.bsky.social) and Mark Walton, and a cover illustration from the talented Lucille Duquenoy from Cragg Lab, is available to pre-order now!

Congratulations to Shinil Raina, who left her position as a RA in the Cragg Lab to take up an MRC iCase funded DPhil position in the Yeo lab at University of Cambridge. We will miss you dearly and wish you the best of luck on your endeavours! Who will win the best poster awards for our team now?

A new #MRC CoRE will focus on developing brain stimulation devices to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s, dementia, stroke and childhood epilepsy. 🎉Many congratulations to our co-PI, Professor Peter Magill, who will be the Director of the MRC CoRE in Restorative Neural Dynamics! 🎉

Team Cragg was out in full-force at the 2025 Oxford Parkinson's Research Day hosted by OPDC earlier this month! 📣 Shoutout to our presenters, Kaitlyn Cramb, Katherine Brimblecombe, Ollie Curry, Rasha Elghaba, and Camille Loiseau, for sharing their fantastic work with the PD community! 📣

Congratulations to our Project Manager Cláudia Mendes for being nominated as ASAP #OpenScience Champion this month! Claudia is deeply committed to make science more open and transparent at all stages of scientific discovery. Thank you for her hard work for making our articles fully ASAP-compliant!

A new publication from Howe Lab is out in Nature Comms examining how #acetylcholine dynamics shape region-specific plasticity to gate learning and promote extinction. Congrats to Safa, Mai-Anh, and the rest of the authors for a fantastic #openscience paper! @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org

🎉Many congratulations to Dr. Bethan O'Connor, and Dr. Lucille Duquenoy from the Cragg Lab who recently passed their DPhil Vivas 🎉 Your hard work and effort has paid off, and Team Cragg is proud of all you have accomplished! @stephcragg.bsky.social @oxforddpag.bsky.social

The Cragg lab is going to NeuroFrance 2025 in Montpellier! Our very own PI Steph Cragg will give a plenary lecture on astrocytes, dopamine and acetylcholine, and lab members Simon Bossi and Lucille Duquenoy will present posters on their impressive work. Come say hi! www.neurosciences.asso.fr/SN25/

Congratulations to Katherine Brimblecombe from Cragg Lab! Her study on L-type calcium channels and striatal dopamine release (doi.org/10.1111/ejn....) is among the most widely read papers published by EJN in 2023! A fantastic recognition of her work within the community! @stephcragg.bsky.social

🧠 Today on #WorldParkinsonsDay, we honor those living with Parkinson’s and the scientists advancing our understanding of #neurodegeneration, from alpha-synuclein to inflammation. Every insight brings us closer to breakthroughs.

🎉 The Cragg lab is hiring 🎉 Are you interest in striatal neurobiology and have relevant lab experience? Join us as an MRC-funded Research Assistant at the University of Oxford. Deadline is noon (UK time) on May 2nd. @stephcragg.bsky.social @oxforddpag.bsky.social my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

🎉 The Cragg Lab is hiring 🎉 Are you interested in astrocytes and striatal neurobiology? Join us as an MRC-funded Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the University of Oxford! Deadline is noon (UK time) on May 2nd. @stephcragg.bsky.social @oxforddpag.bsky.social my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Two of our postdocs were selected to present their findings at the ASAP CRN 2025 Collaborative Meeting in Phoenix! Many thanks to Katherine Brimblecombe from Cragg Lab and Mai-Anh Vu from Howe Lab for sharing your findings! @stephcragg.bsky.social @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org

The ASAP CRN 2025 Collaborative Meeting was filled with wonderful talks. Many thanks to our PIs Steph, Richard, and Dinos for sharing the Team's findings with the CRN community! @stephcragg.bsky.social @wademartinslab.bsky.social @meletis.bsky.social @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org

The ASAP CRN 2025 Collaborative Meeting gave us the opportunity to come together in person for an intense, inclusive, and inspiring experience. Always a pleasure to see everyone in person! @stephcragg.bsky.social @wademartinslab.bsky.social @meletis.bsky.social @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org

Congratulations to our very own Shinil Raina from Cragg Lab on her poster prize at the ASAP CRN 2025 Collaborative Meeting in Phoenix, AZ! @stephcragg.bsky.social @oxforddpag.bsky.social @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org #posterwinner #collaboration #openscience

A new publication from Cragg Lab is out in @natureneuro.bsky.social revisiting old friends/foes #dopamine and #acetylcholine. Congrats to Yanfeng Zhang, Qinbo Qiao, and the rest of the team on a great paper! @stephcragg.bsky.social @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org #openscience #collaboration

Our lead-PI Steph Cragg and Early Career Investigator Mark Howe will give a webinar on Cholinergic Interneurons hosted by the Swedish Basal Ganglia Society | SWEBAGS. Join us this Friday, March 28th at 3 pm GMT | 4 pm CET | 11 am EDT! Everyone is welcome! swebags.ebrains.se/events/choli...

We are trilled for the continued support from ASAP and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) to further advance our understand of the neuronal circuits that become dysfunctional in Parkinson’s! @asapresearch.bsky.social #dopamine #ParkinsonsDisease #openscience #collaboration

A new preprint from Meletis Lab on the vulnerability of Anxa1+ dopaminergic neurons in Parkison's Disease is now available! Congratulations to Ioannis Mantas and Alessandro Contestabile for spearheading this work 🎉 #dopamine #Parkinson #openscience @asapresearch.bsky.social

In her latest #blog, Dana Lewis explores how research outcomes often differ due to hidden analytical decisions. ASAP requires analytical code sharing to tackle this uncertainty, promoting transparency and reproducibility🧪. Learn more here: bit.ly/3OhOlvf

A new publication from @stephcragg.bsky.social and supported by @asapresearch.bsky.social and @ukri.org is out today in Nature Communications! Congratulations for everyone involved in this exciting project 🎉! #dopamine #acetylcholine #astrocytes #openscience rdcu.be/d0Knj