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
- 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
- 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
- Manton, J.D., Ostrovsky, A.D., Goetz, L., Costa, M., Rohlfing, T., and Jefferis, G.S.X.E. (2014).Combining genome-scale Drosophila 3D neuroanatomical data by bridging template brains. bioRxiv
- 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).
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Michael-John Dolan, Shahar Frechter, Alexander Shakeel Bates, Chuntao Dan, Paavo Huoviala, Ruairi J.V. Roberts, Philipp Schlegel, Serene Dhawan, Remy Tabano, Heather Dionne, Christina Christoforou, Kari Close, Ben Sutcliffe, Bianca Giuliani, Feng Li, Marta Costa, Gudrun Ihrke, Geoffrey Meissner, Davi Bock, Yoshinori Aso, Gerald Rubin, Gregory Jefferis (accepted). "Neurogenetic dissection of the Drosophila lateral horn reveals output, functions and interaction with the mushroom body", eLife
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Maria José Ribeiro, Ana Fonseca, Mariana Moura-Ramos, Marta Costa, Konstantina Kilteni, Lau Moller Andersen, Lisa Harber-Aschan, Joana A Moscoso, Sonchita Bagchi (2019) Postdoc X-ray in Europe 2017: work conditions, productivity, institutional support and career outlooks, bioRxiv
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S Sayin, J-F De Backer, ME Wosniack, L Lewis, KP Siju, L-M Frisch, P Schlegel, A Edmondson-Stait, N Sharifi, CB Fisher, S Calle-Schuler, S Lauritzen, D Bock, M Costa, GSXE Jefferis, J Gjorgjieva, I Grunwald Kadow (2018) A neural circuit arbitrates between perseverance and withdrawal in hungry Drosophila, bioRxiv
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
