The University of Chicago
Department of Psychology
5848 South University Avenue
Chicago, IL, 60637
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Sarah London
Biography
Sarah London received her BA in Biology and Psychology from Middlebury College and her PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA. She completed her postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sarah London is interested in how the brain develops, especially how early experience can alter neural function and behavior. She uses the zebra finch songbird as her model system because males can learn their song during only one period in development (females cannot sing). She applies molecular and genomic tools in combination with behavioral manipulations to uncover neural processes that promote and limit the ability of young zebra finches to acquire song. This strategy allows one to discover mechanisms that may also be involved in human speech acquisition and other developmentally learned behaviors.
Research Interests
Brain development
Molecular and genomic correlates of behavior
Experience-dependent neural plasticity
Sensitive periods
Learning & memory
Language
Sex differences
Publications
London SE and Clayton DF. (2010) The neurobiology of zebra finch song: insights from gene expression studies. Emu-Austral Ornithology. 110(3): 219-232.
Xie F*, London SE*, Southey BS*, Annangudi SP, Wadhams AA, Clayton DF, Sweedler JA. (2010) The zebra finch neuropeptidome: prediction, detection and expression. BMC Biology. 8(1):28. *these authors contributed equally
London SE, Itoh Y, Lance VA, Wise PM, Ekanayake PS, Arnold AP, Schlinger BA. (2010) Neural expression and post-transcriptional dosage compensation of the steroid metabolic enzyme 17β−HSD type 4. BMC Neuroscience. 11(1):47.
London SE and Clayton DF. (2010) Genomic and neural analysis of the estradiol-synthetic pathway in the zebra finch. BMC Neuroscience. 11(1):46.
Warren WC, Clayton DF, Ellegren H, Arnold AP, Hillier LW, Kunstner A, Searle S, White S, Vilella AJ, Heger A, Kong L, Ponting CP, Jarvis E, Mello CV, Minx P, Yang S-P, Lovell P, Velho TAF, Ferris M, Balakrishnan CN, Sinha S, Blatti C, London SE, Li Y, Lin Y-C, George J, Sweedler J, Southey B, Gunaratne P, Watson M, Nam K, Backstrom N, Smeds L, Nabholz B, Itoh Y, Howard J, Pffenning A, Whitney O, Völker M, Skinner BM, Griffin DK, Ye L, Flicek P, Quesada V, Velasco G, Lopez-Otin C, Puente XS, Oleander T, Lancet D, Villela A, Smit AFA, Hubley R, Konkel M, Walker JA, Batzer MA, Gu W, Pollock DD, Chen L, Cheng G, Eichler E, Stapley J, Slate J, Ekblom R, Burt D, Scharff C, Adam I, Richard H, Sultan M, Soldatov A, Graves T, Fulton L, Nelson J, Chinwalla A, Hou S, Mardis ER, and Wilson RK. (2010) The genome of a songbird. Nature. 464(7289):757-62.
Remage-Healey L, London SE, Schlinger BA. (2010) Birdsong and the neural production of steroids. Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy. 39(2): 72-81.
Clayton DF, Balakrishnan CN, London SE. (2009) Integrating genomes, brain and behavior in the study of songbirds. Current Biology. 19(18): R865 - R873.
London SE, Remage-Healey L, Schlinger BA. (2009) Neurosteroid production in the songbird brain: a re-evaluation of core principles. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. 30(3):302-314.
London SE, Dong S, Replogle K, Clayton DF. (2009) Developmental shifts in gene expression in the auditory forebrain during the sensitive period for song learning. Developmental Neurobiology. 69(7):437-450.
London SE and Clayton DF. (2008) Functional identification of sensory mechanisms required for developmental song learning. Nature Neuroscience. 11(5):579-86.
Sloley S, Smith S, Gandhi S, Busby JA, London S Luksch H, Clayton DF, Bhattacharya SK. (2007) Proteomic analyses of zebra finch optic tectum and comparative histochemistry. Journal of Proteome Research. 6(6):2341-2350.
London SE and Schlinger BA. (2007) Steroidogenic enzymes along the ventricular proliferative zone in the developing songbird brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology. 502(4):507-21.
Sloley S, Smith S, Algeciras M, Caldwell Busby JA, London S, Clayton DF, Bhattacharya SK. (2007) Proteomic analyses of songbird (zebra finch; Taeniopygia guttata) retina. Journal of Proteome Research. 6(3):1093-100.
London SE, Monks DA, Wade J, Schlinger BA. (2006) Widespread capacity for neurosteroid synthesis in the avian brain and song system. Endocrinology. 147(12):5975-87.
Schlinger BA and London SE. (2006) Neurosteroids and the songbird model system. Journal of Experimental Zoology. 305A(9):743-748.
Schlinger BA, Soma KK, London SE. (2006) Integrating steroid synthesis with steroid action: multiple mechanisms in birds. Acta Zoologica Sinica. 52(Supp): 238–241.
Teramitsu I, Kudo LC, London SE, Geschwind DH, White SA. (2004) Parallel FoxP1 and FoxP2 expression in songbird and human brain predicts functional interaction. Journal of Neuroscience. 24:3152-63.
London SE, Boulter J, Schlinger BA. (2003) Cloning of the zebra finch androgen synthetic enzyme CYP17: a study of its neural expression throughout posthatch development. Journal of Comparative Neurology. 467(4):496-508.
Schlinger BA, Soma KK, London SE. (2001) Neurosteroids and brain sexual differentiation. Trends in Neuroscience. 24(8):429-31.
Saldanha CJ, Schultz JD, London SE, Schlinger BA. (2000) Telencephalic aromatase but not a song circuit in a sub-oscine passerine, the golden-collared manakin (Manacus vitellinus). Brain Behavior and Evolution. 56(1) 29-37.
