Dr Marta Costa

Biography

I am a Senior Research Associate and Project Lead for the Drosophila Connectomics group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, since November 2016.

This project is a consortium of 2 groups in the UK (Cambridge, Oxford) and 2 in the US (Janelia Research Campus and University of Vermont) and funded by the Wellcome Trust. The Cambridge group is lead by Greg Jefferis and Matthias Landgraf. The project aims to describe the circuits involved in innate and learning olfactory behaviour using the first electron-microscopy whole adult brain dataset generated at Janelia Research Campus by Davi Bock.

I have been interested in pursuing neuroscience research since my undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. After completing a MSc Neuroscience at UCL with Jon Clarke, using real-time imaging to analyse zebrafish neurulation, I moved to Cambridge for a PhD. Working in the lab of Pat Simpson, I focused on describing the pathways responsible for the patterning of thoracic bristles in different species of flies.

In 2011, looking to contribute to community resources, I started my first postdoc with the Virtual Fly Brain project (VFB) and later on, also joined FlyBase. Both projects are large research collaborations that collect and integrate Drosophila data (neuronal or genetic, respectively), making it available to the community via a web-based resource. I focused on image analysis and neuroanatomy curation, and in a collaboration with Greg Jefferis (MRC-LMB), developed the neuronal similarity algorithm NBLAST, now used by various groups. I am currently a Co-Investigator on VFB.

Publications

Key publications:

Alexander S. Bates*, Philipp Schlegel*, Ruairi J.V. Roberts, Nikolas Drummond, Imaan F.M. Tamimi, Robert Turnbull, Xincheng Zhao, Elizabeth C. Marin, Patricia D. Popovici, Serene Dhawan, Arian Jamasb, Alexandre Javier, Laia Serratosa Capdevila, Feng Li, Gerald M. Rubin, Scott Waddell, Davi D. Bock, Marta Costa and Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis (2020) Complete Connectomic Reconstruction of Olfactory Projection Neurons in the Fly Brain, Current Biology
Elizabeth C. Marin, Laurin Büld, Maria Theiss, Tatevik Sarkissian, Ruairí J.V. Roberts, Robert Turnbull, Imaan F.M. Tamimi, Markus W. Pleijzier, Willem J. Laursen, Nik Drummond, Philipp Schlegel, Alexander S. Bates, Feng Li, Matthias Landgraf, Marta Costa, Davi D. Bock, Paul A. Garrity and Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis (2020) Connectomics Analysis Reveals First-, Second-, and Third-Order Thermosensory and Hygrosensory Neurons in the Adult Drosophila Brain, Current Biology
Nils Otto, Markus W. Pleijzier, Isabel C. Morgan, Amelia J. Edmondson-Stait, Konrad J. Heinz, Ildiko Stark, Georgia Dempsey, Masayoshi Ito, Ishaan Kapoor, Joseph Hsu, Philipp M. Schlegel, Alexander S. Bates, Li Feng, Marta Costa, Kei Ito, Davi D. Bock, Gerald M. Rubin, Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis and Scott Waddell (2020) Input Connectivity Reveals Additional Heterogeneity of Dopaminergic Reinforcement in Drosophila, Current Biology
Paavo Huoviala, Michael-John Dolan*, Fiona M. Love*, Shahar Frechter, Ruairí J.V. Roberts, Zane Mitrevica, Philipp Schlegel, Alexander Shakeel Bates, Yoshinori Aso, Tiago Rodrigues, Hannah Cornwall, Marcus Stensmyr, Davi Bock, Gerald M. Rubin, Marta Costa, Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis (2018) Neural circuit basis of aversive odour processing in Drosophila from sensory input to descending output, bioRxiv
P Schlegel (1), M Costa (1), GSXE Jefferis (2017) Learning from Connectomics on the fly, Current Opinion in Insect Science, 24:96–105
E Marin & M Costa (2017) Sensory Neurobiology: Wet Fly Fishing, Current Biology, 27:R833–R852
Costa, M., A.D., Manton, Ostrovsky, J.D., Prohaska, S. and Jefferis, G.S.X.E. (2016).NBLAST: Rapid, sensitive comparison of neuronal structure and construction of neuron family databases. Neuron, 91(2), 293-311
Costa, M., Calleja, M., Alonso, C. R. and Simpson, P. (2013). The bristle patterning genes hairy and extramacrochaetae regulate the development of structures required for flight in Diptera. Dev. Biol. 1–11.
Costa M., Reeve S., Grumbling G., Osumi-Sutherland D. (2013). The Drosophila anatomy ontology. Journal of Biomedical Semantics 4 (32).

Other publications:

Alexander S. Bates, James D. Manton, Sridhar R. Jagannathan, Marta Costa, Philipp Schlegel, Torsten Rohlfing, Gregory S. X. E. Jefferis (2020) The natverse, a versatile computational toolbox to combine and analyse neuroanatomical data, eLife
Johannes Felsenberg, Pedro F. Jacob, Thomas Walker, Oliver Barnstedt, Amelia J. Edmondson-Stait, Markus W. Pleijzier, Nils Otto, Philipp Schlegel, Nadiya Sharifi, Emmanuel Perisse, Carlas S. Smith, J. Scott Lauritzen, Marta Costa, Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis, Davi D. Bock and Scott Waddell (2018) Integration of Parallel Opposing Memories Underlies Memory Extinction. Cell
R. C. Court, J. D. Armstrong, J. Borner, G. Card, M. Costa, M. Dickinson, C. Duch, W. Korff, R. Mann, D. Merritt, R. Murphey, et al. (2017). A Systematic Nomenclature for the Drosophila Ventral Nervous System. bioRxiv
S. J. Marygold, G. Antonazzo, H. Attrill, M. Costa, M. A. Crosby, G. dos Santos, J. L. Goodman, L. S. Gramates, B. B. Matthews, A. J. Rey, et al. (2016). Exploring FlyBase Data Using QuickSearch. Current Protocols in Bioinformatics, 1–31.
Costa, M., A.D., Manton, Ostrovsky, J.D., Prohaska, S. and Jefferis, G.S.X.E. (2014).NBLAST: Rapid, sensitive comparison of neuronal structure and construction of neuron family databases. bioRxiv
Araya, C., Tawk, M., Girdler, G. C., Costa, M., Carmona-Fontaine, C. and Clarke, J. D. (2014).Mesoderm is required for coordinated cell movements within zebrafish neural plate in vivo. Neural Dev. 9, 9.
Correia, C. (1), Costa, M. (1), Moraes, F. (1), Bom J., Nóvoa A. and Mallo, M. (2007). Bmp2 is required for migration but not for induction of neural crest cells in the mouse. Developmental Dynamics 236, 2493-2501. (1) equal contributors.