Normal brain development demands that neurons acquire their appropriate three dimensional structure and establish correct synaptic connections with one another - processes that are believed to be abnormal in disorders such as epilepsy and schizophrenia. Therefore understanding how a neuron establishes and maintains its complex structures, its axon and dendrites, is key to understanding how the brain develops and ultimately functions. Dr Akerman’s group are examining how intercellular signalling events regulate the fundamental processes of neural circuit formation in the developing brain. The group’s work combine electrophysiological assessment of synaptic transmission, single and multi-photon confocal imaging of neurons, and molecular biology techniques to both manipulate and visualise specific proteins implicated in synaptic development. Using this multidisciplinary approach, Dr Akerman has recently shown key roles for patterned synaptic activity, and more specifically glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission, in the development of both structural and functional aspects of neural circuits.

Dr Akerman joined the Department in 2005 from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York.  While there, Dr Akerman used a combination of molecular, electrophysiological and optical techniques to investigate how early glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission regulates circuit formation in the developing brain.  Normal brain development demands that neurons acquire their appropriate three dimensional structure and establish correct synaptic connections with one another - processes that are believed to be abnormal in disorders such as epilepsy and schizophrenia.  In order to examine fundamental molecular and activity-dependent mechanisms that control neuronal growth and synaptic development, Dr Akerman’s laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach that includes: (i) electrophysiological assessment of synaptic transmission (ii) confocal imaging of living neurons (iii) manipulation of proteins of interest in subsets of neurons and (iv) molecular biology techniques to characterise proteins that regulate synaptic development. 

Dr. Akerman holds Masters degrees in Psychology (Edinburgh) and Neuroscience (Oxford).  He conducted his doctoral studies in the Department of Physiology, Oxford, where he worked with Professor Ian Thompson on the role of early synaptic activity in the development of the mammalian thalamus and cortex.  Following the completion of his PhD in 2001, Dr Akerman was awarded a Wellcome Trust Travelling Fellowship which he held in the laboratory of Professor Holly Cline at Cold Spring Harbor, New York.  In 2005 he returned to Oxford under this fellowship in order to work with Dr Nigel Emptage in Pharmacology.  Dr Akerman is the first holder of an RCUK Academic Research Fellowship in the Department.