Barry Dickson
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Barry J. Dickson (born 14 August 1962) is an Australian
neurobiologist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, neural circuits, and glia, and their behavioral, biological, and psychological roles in health and disease. ...
who studies the development of neuronal networks in the fruit fly
Drosophila melanogaster ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (an insect of the Order (biology), order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly", "pomace fly" ...
. Dickson is a group leader at the
Janelia Research Campus Janelia Research Campus is a scientific research campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that opened in October 2006. The campus is located in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the town of Ashburn. It is known for its scientific research and m ...
of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...
in
Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg, Virgi ...
,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
and a former scientific director of the
Research Institute of Molecular Pathology The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) is a biomedical research center, which conducts curiosity-driven basic research in the molecular life sciences. The IMP is located at the Vienna Biocenter in Vienna, Austria. The institute empl ...
(IMP) in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
,
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
.


Early life and education

Barry Dickson was born in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, and studied mathematics, computer science and genetics at the
University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...
. He received his first bachelor of science degree in 1984. Until 1986, Dickson worked as a research assistant at the epidemiology unit at the University of Melbourne and at the
Menzies School of Health Research Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with two campuses in Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and six satellite campuses in metropolitan and regional areas of the Northern Territory. It was established in 2003 after ...
in Darwin. He received a second bachelor of science with honors in 1987 for his thesis about “Interactions between multiple operator sites controlling transcription of the aroFtyrA operon of Escherichia coli K-12”. Dickson gained further research experience working in the Laboratory of Joachim Spiess at the
Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine; among th ...
in
San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
between 1987 and 1989. Following this, Dickson took up research for a PhD at the
University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...
in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, where he worked in the lab of Ernst Hafen on the visual system development of Drosophila. He was awarded a PhD in 1992 and remained in the lab as postdoctoral researcher for two more years.


Career and research

In 1994, Dickson joined Corey Goodman for postdoctoral research at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
. There, he started working on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of axon pathfinding. Dickson continued this work while establishing his own research group at the University of Zurich. In 1998, Dickson moved to Vienna where he became group leader at the
Research Institute of Molecular Pathology The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) is a biomedical research center, which conducts curiosity-driven basic research in the molecular life sciences. The IMP is located at the Vienna Biocenter in Vienna, Austria. The institute empl ...
(IMP) for five years, followed by a position as senior scientist at the newly founded Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA). Around this time, his research focus shifted to a new topic, the genetic basis of complex innate behavior in Drosophila. In 2005, he published a key paper in which he described a master gene for sex specific behavior in fruit flies, which stimulated discussions beyond the scientific community. Shortly after this discovery, Dickson received a
Wittgenstein Award The Wittgenstein Award () is an Austrian science award supporting the notion that "scientists should be guaranteed the greatest possible freedom and flexibility in the performance of their research." The prize money of up to 1.5 million euro make i ...
in recognition of his work. In 2006, Dickson succeeded
Kim Nasmyth Kim Ashley Nasmyth (born 18 October 1952) is an English geneticist, the Whitley Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, former scientific director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathol ...
as scientific director of the IMP. Research in his lab now focused more on understanding the genetic and neural underpinnings of innate behaviors in Drosophila. In 2013, Dickson followed a call to the Janelia Farm Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dickson continued his studies of fruit fly mating behavior to help uncover how the brain processes information and makes decisions. Using thermogenetic screening, Dickson and his research group identified
neurons A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...
in the fruit fly’s brain that cause a change in locomotion. In a paper published in 2014, they describe four lines of flies that walked backward on heat activation. The scientists were able to track down these changes to specific nerve cells in the fly brain which they dubbed „moonwalker neurons“.


Awards and honours

*2024 Elected
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
*2009 Elected AAAS Fellow *2006 Remedios Caro Almela Prize for Research in Developmental Neurobiology *2005 Wittgenstein Prize, Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) *2003 EMBO Membership *2000 EMBO Young Investigator Award


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, Barry Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Living people 1962 births Australian neuroscientists European Research Council grantees Fellows of the Royal Society University of Melbourne alumni Charles Darwin University alumni University of Zurich alumni