Year 1: Medical Biology 1

Year 3: Mechanisms of Brain Development 3, Anatomy and Development 3

Year 4: Honours Anatomy and Development

Honours electives

Development and Disease

Taught or Research MSc

MSc by Research Biomedical Sciences (Life Sciences)       

MSc by Research Integrative Neuroscience

Thomas Theil graduated in Chemistry at the Ruhr University Bochum (Germany) before completing his PhD at Philipps University Marburg. Following a postdoc at NIMR in London, he habilitated in Developmental and Molecular Biology at the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf. After a short period at the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, he obtained  a Wellcome Trust University Award which allowed him to establish his research group at the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed as Senior Lecturer and Reader in 2011 and 2015, respectively.

Our research aims to understand the formation of the cerebral cortex, the seat of all higher cognitive functions unique to humans. Fulfilling these functions requires dozens of different types of neurons which are generated from neural stem cells during embryonic development. To produce all these neurons in correct numbers involves extensive communication between stem cells and their environment. Using mouse mutants and human organoid models we investigate how generating neuron subtypes in the cortex is controlled at the molecular and cellular level. Our findings will have implications for understanding the causes of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/discovery-brain-sciences/our-staff/research-groups/thomas-theil

We are investigating the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control the formation of the cerebral cortex during embryonic development.

• Control of cortical patterning and stem cell development by the Gli3 transcription factor
• Role of cell signalling in cortical development
• Role of primary cilia in cortical development