Baines Lab
​Animal Magnetosensitivity

How animals sense, and transduce to altered behaviour, the Earth's magnetic field represents one of the last grand challenges in biology. Progress is hampered by the lack of model systems with which to test theoretical ideas. We exploit the larvae of the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, because this allows us to combine molecular genetics with electrophysiology to directly interrogate the mechanism(s) that support animal magnetosensitivity.

NOTE: I am now semi-retired working 2 days per week. I am not accepting applications (UG, PhD, Postdoc) to join my lab group.

Our work provides experimental validation for the role of the flavoprotein Cryptochrome in animal magnetosensitivity. The proposed mechanism requires the binding of the flavin FAD to a defined pocket within the Cryptochrome structure. However, we and others have shown that Cryptochrome variants that lack a FAD-binding pocket can still support magntosensitivity (this includes Human CRY2). We have identified a subtle, but important, alternative mechanism of magnetosensitivity that explains this anomoly. This involves binding of the flavin FAD to the C-terminal of Cryptochrome, instead of, or in addition to, the canonical FAD binding pocket. See Bradlaugh et al: 2023.

Research using Drosophila melanogaster at Manchester is well supported by the Manchester Fly Facility.

I now only work 2 days per week and do not teach.

Current members

Dr. Adam Bradlaugh

Lab Alumni

Postdocs

​Heather Driscoll; Richard Marley; Chris Mee; Nara Muraro; Andrew Weston; Verena Wolfram; Ann Streit; Wei-Hsiang Lin; Olena Riabinina; Iain Hunter; Anna Munro, Bram Coulson

Students (PhD)

Ed Pym; Duncan Wright; Waldemar Ockert; Francesca Cash; Sam Vernon; Jurga Mitzuaite; Alex Dyson; Anna Munro; Fred Mulroe; Bram Coulson; Sarah Doran 

Technicians/RAs

Graham Coutts; Fiona He; Carol Fan; Jil Parkin; Jacob Davies; Jack Corke; Mariam Huertas-Radi

Lab Visitors
​(and their homes when visiting)

Lucia de Andres Bragado (Fribourg)
Rajaguru Aradhya (Clermont)
Matthew Clark (Oregon)
Louise Couton (Cambridge)
Logesh Dharmar (Emory)
Abud Farca-Luna (Fribourg)
Cengiz Günay (Emory)
Caroline Herron (Dublin)
Pinky Kain (Münster)
Chi-Yu Lee (Tsukuba)
Cici Li (Edinburgh)
Amit Nair (Cambridge)
Richard Ngomba (Lincoln)
Matt Oswald (Cambridge)
Clare Pilgrim (Imperial)
Stefan Pulver (Cambridge)
Maarten Zwart (Cambridge)

There are no funded vacancies available at present.