Researcher profile

C.H.Brennan, C Brennan

I completed my PhD in Prof J.M. Littleton's Lab, where I demonstrated that chronic exposure to central depressant drugs drives adaptive changes in DHP-sensitive VOCC numbers — findings that directly linked neurobiological plasticity to genetic vulnerability in drug dependence. Following post-doctoral training at the Clinical Research Centre Harrow, I joined Prof Nigel Holder's laboratory at The Randall Institute, KCL, relocating with him to UCL in 1998. Using zebrafish as a genetic model, I established Eph:ephrin signalling as a central regulator of morphogenesis, with defining contributions to axon guidance, hindbrain segmentation and somitogenesis. Since 2000, I have held positions from Lecturer to full Professor in Molecular Genetics at QMUL, serving also as Director of Research and Interim Head of School. My group integrates two research programmes: the molecular control of behaviour — particularly impulse control and cognition — and zebrafish developmental genetics. We have pioneered behavioural assays of addiction and drug-seeking in zebrafish, established genetic lines to dissect contributing mechanisms, and developed automated assays of executive function — including impulse control, attention, memory and number cognition — in larval and adult fish. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a member of the Royal Society's Industry Fellows' College, and a former consultant for Pfizer International.