Fergil Mills
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology
Neural circuits, electrophysiology, calcium imaging, optogenetics
Molecular Biology Program
Education
B.Sc. University of Northern British Columbia
Ph.D. University of British Columbia (Neuroscience)
Research
The Mills lab uses electrophysiology, calcium imaging and optogenetics to record and manipulate neural circuits in vivo. We combine these techniques with computational analysis of behavior to uncover circuit-level mechanisms underlying motivated behaviors.
References
- Mills F, Lee C, Howe JR, Li H, Shao S, Keisler MN, Lemieux ME, Taschbach FH, Keyes LR, Borio M, Chen HS, Patel RR, Gross AL, Delahanty J, Cazares C, Maree L, Wichmann R, Pereira TD, Benna MK, Root CM, & Tye KM. Amygdalostriatal transition zone neurons encode sustained valence to direct conditioned behaviors. Cell Sneak Peek: 2022 Oct 29 Under Review biorXiv: 2022 Oct 29. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.28.514263.
- Allsop S*, Wichmann R*, Mills F*, Burgos-Robles A*, Chang CJ, C. Felix-Ortiz A, Vienne A, Beyeler A, Izadmehr E, Glober G, Cum M, Stergiadou J, Anandalingam K, Farris K, Namburi P, Leppla C, Weddington J, Nieh E, Smith A, Ba D, Brown E & Tye K. Corticoamygdala transfer of socially derived information gates observational learning. Cell (2018) May 3. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.04.004
- Mills F*, Globa A*, Liu S, Cowan CM, Mobasser M, Phillips A, Borgland S, Bamji SX. Cocaine-induced plasticity and behavioural conditioning are mediated by changes in cadherin localization at synapses in the ventral tegmental area. Nature Neuroscience (2017) Apr; 20(4): 540–549. doi: 10.1038/nn.4503
- Mills F, Bartlett T, Dissing-Olessen L, Wisniewska M, Kuznicki J, Wang YT, Bamji SX. Cognitive flexibility and LTD are impaired following β-catenin stabilization in vivo. PNAS (2014) Jun 10; 111(23): 8631–8636. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1404670111