Graham Collingridge explores the process by which experience modifies connections in the mammalian brain — known as synaptic plasticity. His discoveries have greatly clarified the molecular mechanisms that underlie this process in a region of the brain — the hippocampus — that plays a central role in learning and memory.

Using elegant electrophysiological and imaging techniques, Graham has focused on forms of plasticity known as long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). His insights into how receptors for the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate and the inhibitor neurotransmitter GABA are moved into and out of synaptic membranes have profound implications for our understanding of these mechanisms.

Graham is interested in how the downstream effects of interactions at these receptors might be altered in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, anxiety and depression. He is a co-founder of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, which coordinates the annual Brain Awareness Week for an audience that includes non-specialists and the general public