Dr Jamie Beros was awarded his PhD in 2020 from the University of Western Australia under the supervision of Associate Professor Jennifer Rodger and Emeritus Professor Alan Harvey, investigating the mechanisms underlying developmental retinal ganglion cell death in pre-clinical models. Currently he is working with Dr Alex Tang’s research group at UWA investigating neuromodulatory interventions and their effects on synaptic and axonal plasticity in cortical neurons. During his PhD, he completed an internship at the University of Bordeaux (Neurocentre Magendie, France) using optogenetics to investigate the role of adult born neurons in fear memories under the supervision of Dr Muriel Koehl. From this experience, he is now in the process of setting up the first optogenetics platform in WA for in vivo and in vitro experimental use.