Laura Porta is a Senior Research Software Engineer at Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, where Laura is a member of the NeuroInformatics Unit and works at the Margrie Lab analyzing 2-photon and 3-photon calcium imaging data from the mouse visual cortex. Prior to this, Laura was a PhD candidate at SISSA, conducting research on Rat Visual Cortex. Laura has also worked as a developer at Avanade and a junior developer at Howard Huges Medical Institute. Laura holds a Master's degree in Neuroscience from Università di Pisa and a Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from Università degli Studi di Sassari.
Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour
The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre brings together world-leading neuroscientists driven by a common scientific goal: to understand how neural circuits in the brain give rise to the fundamental processes underpinning behaviour including perception, memory, expectation, decisions, cognition, volition and action. Because these questions cannot be answered by any one laboratory, we are developing new models of team science, as well as developing exciting new technologies. Through multi-disciplinary team research, and in close collaboration with the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (GCNU), scientists at the SWC are generating new theories that relate computational algorithms to identified neural circuits to explain different aspects of cognition and behaviour. A core mission of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is to contribute to society through a better understanding of brain function. We engage with school and college students, the local Fitzrovia community, and a global network of stakeholders through public events, media engagement and publications.