Research Lab

We study the biological mechanisms underlying heritable neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our aim is to develop new ways to understand, classify, manage, and ultimately treat these disorders of the brain.

Neurodevelopmental disorders often have strong heritable components and are manifested through a diverse disturbances in cognition, perception, and behaviours. Traditional research approaches have limited capacity to interrogate the biological basis of clinical features that are often subjective in nature. Our work therefore draws on objective neurophysiological profiles, including neural anatomy, transcriptomics, connectomes, functional measurements of brain circuits, and causal manipulations in silico, in vitro, and in vivo, to characterise the perceptual and cognitive processes underlying neuropathologies and behavioural states.

We combine computational modelling and theoretical approaches with experimental and clinical data to understand pathological brain dynamics in both humans and mice. By studying both neurotypical and disease states, we aim to identify how circuit function is altered in neurodevelopmental disorders. Our recent work has revealed novel subcellular signalling dynamics across the brain during visual perception, examined prior-dependent decision-making in ASD, and identified brain-wide circuit pathologies in mouse models of ASD.

To bridge understanding across genetic, molecular, cellular, metabolic, and immunological levels with clinical observations, we integrate high-density multimodal functional measurements with causal manipulations and cross-species computational modelling. Overall, we aim to advance a clinically oriented understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders that will support the development of improved diagnostics and treatments.

Our current projects address these key questions:

1. How do single-cell and subcellular dynamics link biological mechanisms to circuit pathology and symptoms? How are cell-type specific pathologies contribute to atypical brain-wide processing and behavioural output?
2. How do external factors such as gut microbiomes, sleep abnormalities, and environmental stress influence pathological states and circuit dynamics, and how do these interactions evolve with disease progression and symptoms?
3. How could computation modelling and artificial intelligence be applied to distill insights from large scale multimodal datasets, and improve our understanding of neuropathology, bio-subtyping of neuropsychiatric disorders, and prodromal brain disorder detection, and?
4. Could circuit markers be associated with other pathological hallmarks and would cross-level understanding of pathologies identify new treatments targets or fine tune existing therapeutic regime?

1. International Brain Laboratory, Bayer, H. M., Birman, D., Chapuis, G., Witt, E. E. J., Freitas-Silva, L., Langdon, C., Laranjeira, I., Lau, P., Paninski, L., Picard, S., Tessereau, C., Urai, A. E., Whiteway, M. R., & Winter, O. (2026). 20 lessons in team science: Learning from the experience of the International Brain Laboratory. Neuron, 114(6), 980–984.
2. Bruijns, S. A., Bougrova, K., Laranjeira, I. C., Lau, P. Y. P., Meijer, G. T., Miska, N. J., Noel, J.-P., Pan-Vazquez, A., Roth, N., Socha, K. Z., Urai, A. E., & Dayan, P. (2026). Dissecting the complexities of learning with infinite hidden Markov models. Nature Neuroscience, 29, 186–194.
3. Findling, C., Hubert, F., Acerbi, L., Benson, B., Benson, J., Birman, D., Bonacchi, N., Carandini, M., Catarino, J. A., Chapuis, G. A., Churchland, A. K., Dan, Y., DeWitt, E. E. J., Engel, T. A., Fabbri, M., Faulkner, M., Fiete, I. R., Freitas-Silva, L., Gerçek, B., Harris, K. D., Häusser, M., Hofer, S. B., Hu, F., Huntenburg, J. M., Khanal, A., Krasniak, C., Langdon, C., Latham, P. E., Lau, P. Y. P., Mainen, Z., Meijer, G. T., Miska, N. J., Mrsic-Flogel, T. D., Noel, J.-P., Nylund, K., Pan-Vazquez, A., Paninski, L., Pillow, J., Rossant, C., Roth, N., Schaeffer, R., Schartner, M., Shi, Y., Socha, K. Z., Steinmetz, N. A., Svoboda, K., Tessereau, C., Urai, A. E., Wells, M. J., West, S. J., Whiteway, M. R., Winter, O., Witten, I. B., Zador, A., Dayan, P., & Pouget, A. (2025). Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making. Nature, 645(8079), 192–200.
4. Benson, B., Benson, J., Birman, D., Bonacchi, N., Carandini, M., Catarino, J. A., Chapuis, G. A., Churchland, A. K., Dan, Y., Dayan, P., DeWitt, E. E. J., Engel, T. A., Fabbri, M., Faulkner, M., Fiete, I. R., Findling, C., Freitas-Silva, L., Gerçek, B., Harris, K. D., Häusser, M., Hofer, S. B., Hu, F., Hubert, F., Huntenburg, J. M., Khanal, A., Krasniak, C., Langdon, C., Lau, P. Y. P., Mainen, Z. F., Meijer, G. T., Miska, N. J., Mrsic-Flogel, T. D., Noel, J.-P., Nylund, K., Pan-Vazquez, A., Pouget, A., Rossant, C., Roth, N., Schaeffer, R., Schartner, M., Shi, Y., Socha, K. Z., Steinmetz, N. A., Svoboda, K., Urai, A. E., Wells, M. J., West, S. J., Whiteway, M. R., Winter, O., & Witten, I. B. (2025). A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour. Nature, 645(8079), 177–191.
5. International Brain Laboratory, Kanga, B., Benson, J., Bhagat, J., Biderman, D., Birman, D., Bonacchi, N., Bruijns, S. A., Buchanan, K., Campbell, R. A. A., Carandini, M., Chapuis, G. A., Churchland, A. K., Davatolhagh, M. F., Lee, H. D., Faulkner, M., Gerçek, B., Hu, F., Huntenburg, J., Hurwitz, C. L., Khanal, A., Krasniak, C., Lau, P., Langfield, C., Mackenzie, N., Meijer, G. T., Miska, N. J., Mohammadi, Z., Noel, J.-P., Paninski, L., Pan-Vazquez, A., Rossant, C., Roth, N., Schartner, M., Socha, K. Z., Steinmetz, N. A., Svoboda, K., Taheri, M., Urai, A. E., Wang, S., Wells, M., West, S. J., Whiteway, M. R., Winter, O., Witten, I. B., & Zhang, Y. (2025). Reproducibility of in vivo electrophysiological measurements in mice. eLife, 13, RP100840.
6. Donà, E., Gahan, J. M., Lau, P. Y. P., Jeschke, J., Ott, T., Reinhard, K., Sinigaglia, C., Treur, J. L., Vogl, T., Bugeon, S., Mariotti, L., Rossi, L. F., & Coen, P. (2025). The SAFE Labs Handbook as a tool for improving lab culture. eLife, 14, e108853.
7. Banks, G. T., Guillaumin, M. C. C., Heise, I., Lau, P., Yin, M., Bourbia, N., Aguilar, C., Bowl, M. R., Esapa, C., Brown, L. A., Hasan, S., Tagliatti, E., Nicholson, E., Bains, R. S., Wells, S., Vyazovskiy, V. V., Volynski, K., Peirson, S. N., & Nolan, P. M. (2020). Forward genetics identifies a novel sleep mutant with sleep state inertia and REM sleep deficits. Science Advances, 6, eabb3567.
8. Lamsa, K., & Lau, P. (2019). Long-term plasticity of hippocampal interneurons during in vivo memory processes. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 54, 20–27.
9. Banks, G., Lassi, G., Hoerder-Suabedissen, A., Tinarelli, F., Simon, M. M., Wilcox, A., Lau, P., Lawson, T. N., Johnson, S., Rutman, A., Sweeting, J., Chesham, J. E., Barnard, A. R., Horner, N., Westerberg, H., Smith, L. B., Molnar, Z., Hastings, M. H., Hirst, R. A., … Nolan, P. M. (2018). A missense mutation in Katnal1 underlies behavioural, neurological and ciliary anomalies. Molecular Psychiatry, 23, 713–722.
10. Lau, P. Y., Katona, L., Saghy, P., Newton, K., Somogyi, P., & Lamsa, K. P. (2017). Long-term plasticity in identified hippocampal GABAergic interneurons in the CA1 area in vivo. Brain Structure and Function, 222, 1809–1827.