Dr. Simon Butt

Biography

Simon Butt is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford. He completed his undergraduate studies in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford in 1996, where he began his PhD researching serotonergic modulation and its effects on insect motorneurons in the lab of Dr. Bob Pitman at the Gatty Marine Lab, University of St. Andrews. His early experiences investigating neuronal activity in invertebrate neurons inspired his research career, particularly in understanding tools that can resolve specific neuronal subtypes and their contributions to mammalian neural networks. In 2001, he joined Prof. Ole Kiehn's lab at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, where he studied the identified interneuron populations within the mammalian hindlimb locomotor network. During this time, he collaborated with multiple labs to explore the role of transcription factors as genetic determinants in embryonic spinal cord formation. Butt undertook a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Gord Fishell at NYU Medical Center, delving into the genetic basis of cortical interneuron diversity. In 2007, he returned to the UK to take up a Lecturer position in Molecular Neuroscience at Imperial College London and later relocated his group to the University of Oxford, where he continues to advance research in his field.

Research Interests