Dr Darren Logan

Darren's laboratory studies pheromone and olfactory communication in mice. They aim to understand the genes that instruct animals to detect and respond to social signals with highly stereotyped behaviour.

In 1999 Darren graduated from the University of Bath with a Master's degree in Biochemistry before moving to the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh. He joined Professor Ian Jackson's lab to undertake a PhD studying the evolution and function of genes that control pigmentation.

Having explored the molecular mechanisms through which some species instinctively change colour to facilitate camouflage, Darren next wanted to understand how mammals communicate to initiate more complex social behaviours.

He moved to The Scripps Research Institute in 2005, joining Lisa Stowers' group, where he was awarded a Skaggs Fellowship to investigate how mice provoke suckling behaviour in their young. During his time in California, Darren also characterized a novel family of protein pheromones that proved to be the first published example of genetically-encoded signals that initiate a range of innate behaviours in mice, including inter-male aggression and fear of predators.

In early 2010 Darren joined the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute faculty in the Mouse and zebrafish programme. His team combines comparative genomics, reverse genetics, behavioural testing, and neural activation studies to identify and investigate genes involved in the signalling, sensing and processing of olfactory cues that regulate behaviour.

Selected Publications

• Olfactory mechanisms of stereotyped behavior: on the scent of specialized circuits.

  Stowers L and Logan DW

  Current opinion in neurobiology 2010;20;3;274-80

  PUBMED: 20338743; PMC: 2883022; DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2010.02.013

• The vomeronasal organ mediates interspecies defensive behaviors through detection of protein pheromone homologs.

  Papes F, Logan DW and Stowers L

  Cell 2010;141;4;692-703

  PUBMED: 20478258; PMC: 2873972; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.03.037

• Species specificity in major urinary proteins by parallel evolution.

  Logan DW, Marton TF and Stowers L

  PloS one 2008;3;9;e3280

  PUBMED: 18815613; PMC: 2533699; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003280

• Identification of protein pheromones that promote aggressive behaviour.

  Chamero P, Marton TF, Logan DW, Flanagan K, Cruz JR, Saghatelian A, Cravatt BF and Stowers L

  Nature 2007;450;7171;899-902

  PUBMED: 18064011; DOI: 10.1038/nature05997

• Regulation of pigmentation in zebrafish melanophores.

  Logan DW, Burn SF and Jackson IJ

  Pigment cell research / sponsored by the European Society for Pigment Cell Research and the International Pigment Cell Society 2006;19;3;206-13

  PUBMED: 16704454; DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0749.2006.00307.x

• Large-scale analysis of gene structure in rhodopsin-like GPCRs: evidence for widespread loss of an ancient intron.

  Bryson-Richardson RJ, Logan DW, Currie PD and Jackson IJ

  Gene 2004;338;1;15-23

  PUBMED: 15302402; DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2004.05.001

• The structure and evolution of the melanocortin and MCH receptors in fish and mammals.

  Logan DW, Bryson-Richardson RJ, Pagán KE, Taylor MS, Currie PD and Jackson IJ

  Genomics 2003;81;2;184-91

  PUBMED: 12620396