Ella Svahn

Ella completed a BSc (Honours) in Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh in 2019, graduating with first-class honours. Following her undergraduate degree, she worked as a laboratory technician in the Sürmeli Lab at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences. During this time, Ella investigated the organisation of neural circuits connecting the entorhinal cortex to the hippocampus and neocortical areas, with a particular interest in how circuit connectivity may facilitate memory consolidation.

From 2020 to 2025, Ella undertook her PhD at University College London (UCL), funded by the Wellcome Trust Optical Biology PhD programme and EPSRC. Her doctoral research was jointly supervised by Dr Alexander MacAskill in the Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology and Dr Athena Akrami at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre. During her PhD, Ella investigated the role of the cholinergic system, particularly cholinergic inputs to the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, in state inference and flexible decision-making. Her research aimed to better understand how neuromodulatory mechanisms support adaptive behaviour and their potential relevance as therapeutic targets for neuropsychiatric disorders.

In November 2025, Ella joined the Barron Group at the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher. Her project focuses on how mechanisms in the hippocampus and neocortex support memory consolidation for higher-cognitive function, using in-vivo recording, imaging methods and optogenetics in mice. Manipulations are informed by a collaborative project in psychosis patients, led by Dr Leonie Glitz, to allow Ella to test whether causal perturbations in mice can mimic aspects of cognitive dysfunction seen in psychosis.