Dr Clara Ferreira

Assistant Professor

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

Clara is fascinated with the power of using the fly Drosophila melanogaster to study common neurobiological processes. This passion came about during the curricular year of her PhD, when she realized the variety and complexity of behaviours the flies display, and the breadth of available tools for detailed architectural and functional understanding of the underlying neuronal circuits. Clara studied olfactory learning and memory and decision-making processes in individual flies, obtaining her PhD from the University of Oxford. Clara then set out to study social modulation of fear responses in groups of flies, a pervasive feature of social interactions across the animal kingdom, at the Champalimaud Foundation. For this purpose, Clara developed a novel setup and found that flies use social cues from the group to infer both danger and safety. This paradigm and these initial findings open up a vast array of research questions that Clara’s research group is now pursuing at Northumbria University. Find out more from the lab’s website.

Email Clara

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Established in July 2023, the Ferreira lab aims to uncover how social cues are detected and processed in the brain to guide behaviour in groups. Find out more from the lab’s website.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Play-like behavior exhibited by the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster, Triphan, T., H. Ferreira, C., Huetteroth, W. 10 Mar 2025, In: Current Biology
Social Cues of Safety Can Override Differences in Threat Level, Ferreira, C., Heinemans, M., Farias, M., Gonçalves, R., Moita, M. 24 Jun 2022, In: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Behavioral and neuronal underpinnings of safety in numbers in fruit flies, Ferreira, C., Moita, M. 1 Dec 2020, In: Nature Communications
What can a non-eusocial insect tell us about the neural basis of group behaviour?, Ferreira, C., Moita, M. Dec 2019, In: Current Opinion in Insect Science
FoxP influences the speed and accuracy of a perceptual decision in Drosophila, DasGupta, S., Ferreira, C., Miesenboc̈k, G. 2014, In: Science
Differential gene expression analysis in Enchytraeus albidus exposed to natural and chemical stressors at different exposure periods, Novais, S., Howcroft, C., Carreto, L., Pereira, P., Santos, M., De Coen, W., Soares, A., Amorim, M. Jan 2012, In: Ecotoxicology
Biochemical characterization of cholinesterases in Enchytraeus albidus and assessment of in vivo and in vitro effects of different soil properties, copper and phenmedipham, Howcroft, C., Gravato, C., Amorim, M., Novais, S., Soares, A., Guilhermino, L. Jan 2011, In: Ecotoxicology
Effects of natural and chemical stressors on Enchytraeus albidus: Can oxidative stress parameters be used as fast screening tools for the assessment of different stress impacts in soils?, Howcroft, C., Amorim, M., Gravato, C., Guilhermino, L., Soares, A. Feb 2009, In: Environment international

PGR Supervision

Rui MacHado Gonçalves The role of neuropeptides in social modulation of freezing responses Start Date: 01/06/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025
Harley Evans Neuronal circuit-level action of genes underlying social behaviour dysfunction in Drosophila melanogaster Start Date: 01/10/2026
Rui MacHado Gonçalves The role of neuropeptides in social modulation of freezing responses Start Date: 01/06/2025

Qualifications

Neurosciences DPhil June 30 2015