Professor Gavan Patrick McNally

Our research is concerned with the fundamental brain mechanisms for motivation and how these apply to clinical conditions such as addictions, anxiety disorders, and mood disorders. We are interested in identiyfing these mechanisms, at the cellular, circuit, and systems level and also in translating this fundamental information into new treatments of psychological conditions. To do so, we adopt a systems neuroscience approach combining well controlled behavioural approaches with a variety of approaches (optogenetics, chemogenetics, in vivo calcium imaging, whole brain circuit mapping) in normal and transgenic animals to map and manipulate, at cellular and circuit levels, brain mechanisms. 

The lab currently comprises 6 postdoctoral fellows and  4 PhD students. Please contact me if you would like to join us.

Education

BSc (Hon) (UNSW)
PhD  (UNSW)

Awards and Honours

2009 Association for Psychological Science, International Rising Star
2010 Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
2010 UNSW Faculty of Science Staff Excellence Award for Research and Training
2011 Pavlovian Research Award, The Pavlovian Society 
2016 D.G. Marquis Behavioral Neuroscience Award, American Psychological Association
2017 Fellow, American Psychological Association
2019 Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia

Current Research Staff

Postdoctoral

Dr Asheeta Prasad (ARC DECRA)
Dr Zhi Yi Ong (ARC DECRA)
Dr E. Zayra Millan
Dr Joanna O-Y. Yau
Dr Phillip Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel
Dr Eun A Choi

PhD

Si Yin Lui
Sophia Gilchrist
Eddie Wise