Dr Faye McLeod
The regulation of synaptic connectivity in health and disease
Dr Faye McLeod’s research focuses on understanding how synaptic connectivity is regulated during human brain development and how disruption of these processes contributes to epilepsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Using a multidisciplinary approach that combines cell biology techniques, live imaging and electrophysiology, she investigates the molecular mechanisms that control synapse formation, function and plasticity. Her earlier work in rodent models helped define how specific signalling pathways, including secreted synaptic modulators, regulate synaptic structure and transmission. More recently, she has developed and optimised translational in vitro models using living human cortical tissue to study how mutations in key pre- and postsynaptic proteins disrupt synaptic function in genetic epilepsies and autism spectrum disorders.
