Molecular insights into dissociating learning and motivation

Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Australia

Associate Professor Jess Nithianantharajah heads the Synapse Biology and Cognition laboratory at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne. She completed her doctorate in behavioural neuroscience at the University of Melbourne and commenced postdoctoral training at the Howard Florey Institute investigating gene-environment interactions on neural plasticity. She then relocated to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge UK and held a joint appointment at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge UK. After some time at the University of Edinburgh, she returned to The Florey Institute as an independent group leader. Her research interests lie in understanding the role of synaptic genes in cognition and disease.