Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Anatomy and Genetics & Department of Clinical Neurology, University of Oxford
Colin's current interests lie in three areas. First, with Dr Irina Bystron, he is studying the earliest stages of formation of the human cerebral cortex, using immunocytochemical methods and techniques for tracing the outgrowth of axons to examine the proliferation of neural stem cells, the production, migration and differentiation of cortical neurons, as well the formation of connections into and out of the developing cortex. One aim of this research is to define the developmental errors that underlie cognitive disorders, such as autism, dyslexia and schizophrenia.
Colin’s second area of current research, together with Drs Kai Thilo and Meng Liang, uses techniques for imaging activity in the living adult human brain to examine the capacity of sensory areas of the cortex to reorganize their activity during selective attention, during the integration of information from different sensory systems and after the onset of blindness.
And third, he continues to work in collaboration with Dr Tony Hannan (now at the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne, Australia) on the cellular pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease.
Colin is a Fellow of the Royal Society (since 1992) and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is an Honorary FRCP and an Honorary Fellow or Honorary Member of the Institute of Biology, British Pharmacological Society, Physiological Society, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, British Association for the Advancement of Science and Cambridge Union. He is a member of Academia Europaea and a Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Indian Academy of Neurosciences and the National Academy of Sciences of India. He has been President of the British Association, the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the Biosciences Federation. He is Chairman of the Food Standard Agency’s General Advisory Committee on Science and the Health Protection Agency’s Electromagnetic Fields Discussion Group.
Colin has been actively involved in the public communication of science for more than 30 years. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television, has published a number of books about science for a general readership, and he writes for the national and international media. He works with and for the Science Museum, London, the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, the Cheltenham Festival of Science, the Science Media Centre and Sense about Science. He is President of the Association of British Science Writers. He is an active supporter of several medical charities, and is President of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, Vice-Chairman of SANE and Vice President of the Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Association. He is Chairman of Understanding Animal Research. He is a Commissioner of the UK Drug Policy Commission and has helped to develop new evidence-based methods to define the harm of drugs of potential abuse.