Neural stem cells give rise to neurons and glia not only during embryonic development to form the brain but also during adult hood to lay down memories or replace lost neurons. To harvest the potential of neural stem cells towards new therapies against brain disease such as upon neurodegeneration or following brain injury, we need to gain a better understanding of the genes which control their fate. We harvested single neural stem cell types from living brains of the fruit fly Drosophila model at two developmental time points and mapped their transcriptome. The data shows that 70% of all identified transcripts are conserved in mammals including humans, and interestingly are also expressed in known neural stem cell niches of the mouse brain. This suggests common aspects in fate acquisition and maintenance of neural stem cells in Drosophila and mammals. The selected PhD candidate will study the role of identified novel genes in controlling neural stem fate, division, and the determination of neuronal progeny in the brain. The project is based in the laboratories of Dr. T. Bossing (Director of Studies) and Dr C. Barros at the Peninsula Medical School of the University of Plymouth and in collaboration with Dr. I. Garay at the University of Cardiff. Work will predominantly make use of the Drosophila brain and expression and function of most interesting candidates may also be studied in the mouse brain model.

Deadline for application: 31.07.21