Watching brain circuits fire

Dr Philip Ryan works in the Florey Institute’s unofficial disco division. To watch the images from his research is to see brains light up, with flashes of colour and movement as circuits fire.

The work is not only visually stunning, it ventures into new territory, exploring the essence of brain function. Phil is striving to map brain circuits so scientists can track the different pathways responsible for different neural functions. He’s using the world’s most advanced microscopes and cutting-edge calcium dye technology to inch ever further along the tangled networks of the brain.

Married with three kids, including a set of primary school-aged twins, Phil somehow still finds the energy to pursue his scientific dream – to map the brain circuits underlying mental illness, so new treatments can be devised. Having originally graduated as a doctor, he also studied biomedical science and realised that by moving his career into research instead of treating patients, he could potentially help many, rather than one patient at a time.

Being able to watch small flashes of lightning flit across a mouse brain in real time may have long and lasting benefits for human health. “I have focused on alcohol and am now also interested in sugary type foods which relate to the addiction type response.”

The research could lead to treatments for high blood pressure because scientists may learn how to ease strain on fluid balance pathways.

“Other possible medical conditions might be fluid overload in heart failure, kidney failure, or liver cirrhosis, where patients can become really fluid overloaded.” In hospitals, such patients are sometimes put on fluid reduction diets but battle severe thirst sensations. “They really struggle to keep to a certain amount of drinking, so if you could find a way to make them less thirsty, that could be useful for those type of conditions.”

A passionate mentor of the next generation, she is committed to fitting this responsibility around her laboratory work. She is a strong believer in loving what you do, which leads to success. “I just love seeing my students grow. They arrive not knowing anything and when they leave they are confident scientists. It also leads to strong collaborations down the track, although that’s not why I teach. I have former students at Oxford and in Singapore, for example. It builds great friendships.”

Martina loves skiing, mountain biking and other alpine-related activities. She was thrilled when she moved to Melbourne, from Perth, to discover Victoria had genuine mountains. She would love her son to share her passion for ice hockey, but admits he is currently teaching her about Aussie Rules football, and particularly the Tigers.

Martina works in the field of receptors. These sit on the surface of our cells, providing instructions on how the cells should behave. She examines the influence of drugs and internal messages on individual cells, and the way they influence the overall health of the body.

Dr Martina Kocan and her husband, Dr Martin Kocan, were born in the same hospital on the same day (after the maternity ward, they next met in high school). She says their almost-the-same-names and shared birth date can be really annoying when buying plane tickets as people always think there’s a mistake and there’s only one person. Martin is an electronic engineer. They have a son, Matthias, who has just started primary school.

Philip shares with us his favourite book

“A short history of nearly everything” by Bill Bryson

It covers many fields of science in a very witty and informative way. Bill Bryson also includes some very humorous tales about the scientists behind the discoveries and some of their eccentric behaviours.

He completed his PhD at the Florey in 2008 before heading to Seattle to the University of Washington, where he studied innovative genetic manipulation techniques. He learned to inject calcium indicator dyes into parts of a mouse brain, witnessing cells lighting up when they fired in response to drinking water or ingesting salt.

“I’m most interested in psychiatric disorders, like anxiety, depression, addiction. By understanding the underlying circuitry, you can begin to work out different treatments, and that doesn’t necessarily have to be drugs. It might be to work out new behavioural therapies.

by Yuval Noah Harari

This professor

“I was looking at this particular group of neurones in a part of the brain called the parabrachial nucleus, which is right in the back part of the brain stem,” Phil says. “These particular neurones, which express the receptor for oxytocin, seemed to be involved in drinking, so if I dehydrated the mouse for 24 hours you couldn’t see anything in the cells, but when the mouse started to drink, you could see the cells start to light up.

“And then I could also trace where those neurones projected to in other parts of the brain, so I could trace out a map of the brain circuit.”

One of the interesting findings over the last decade is that behavioural therapies will often decrease ‘activation’ of certain brain regions as well, so understanding the circuitry doesn’t automatically mean developing a new drug, it might mean understanding how specific interactions affect our brain too.

“Providing the framework for the underlying brain circuits for these types of conditions can lead to better treatment pathways.”

She is exploring why a potentially powerful drug for acute heart failure – the protein hormone relaxin – failed stage III clinical trials. She’s also examining if drugs targeting specific G protein-coupled receptors could be important in treating brain illnesses in the future, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, epilepsy and schizophrenia.

Martina speaks four languages: Slovakian, Czech, German and English.

Melbourne’s only Slovakian restaurant sadly closed down, but as Slovakian food and Polish food are quite similar, Martina and her family can still find a fix of borscht when she yearns for a taste of home.