Background

As Research Culture Manager I have a broad and diverse role, currently focussed on the delivery of the first Institutional Research Culture Action Plan. I work closely with a variety of teams across the University to enhance and sustain the environment and culture for our entire research community. Consultation with our community, and responsiveness toward their changing needs is vital in my role. Our research community have identified four key attributes for a positive Research Culture: Collaboration and Collegiality, Freedom to Grow and Explore, Fairness and Inclusion, Openness and Integrity, it is these attributes that shape all the activities I lead and support.

My previous roles at Newcastle were as a Research Associate, working on the honey bee taste system and viral susceptibility.

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Research

Previously I worked on a project investigating the rates and transmission of the increasingly prevalent Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus in the lab of Prof Giles Budge. The project aimed to understand how the virus interacts with the host and spreads, allowing us to develop an evidence based toolkit for bee farmers in the field.  

My first postdoctoral project was interested in the chemosensory system of the honey bee, in particular gustation and how the bee encodes the taste of specific foods. The insect gustatory system is relatively understudied in comparison to all other sensory systems and yet the principals in which it functions are applicable to range of animals, including ourselves. The honey bee provides an ideal model system for this work as it encodes sensory information using a greatly reduced number of gustatory receptors which allows for greater ease and accuracy of recording. 

Publications

• Articles

  • Budge GE, Simcock NK, Holder PJ, Shirley MDF, Brown MA, Van Weymers PSM, Evans DJ, Rushton SP. Chronic bee paralysis as a serious emerging threat to honey bees. Nature Communications 2020, 11, 2164.
  • Simcock NK, Gray H, Bouchebti S, Wright GA. Appetitive olfactory learning and memory in the honeybee depend on sugar reward identity. Journal of Insect Physiology 2018, 106(Part 1), 71-77.
  • Simcock NK, Wakeling LA, Ford D, Wright GA. Effects of age and nutritional state on the expression of gustatory receptors in the honeybee (Apis mellifera). PLOS One 2017, 12(4), e0175158.
  • Simcock NK, Gray HE, Wright GA. Single amino acids in sucrose rewards modulate feeding and associative learning in the honeybee. Journal of Insect Physiology 2014, 69, 41-48.
  • Wright GA, Mustard JA, Simcock NK, Ross-Taylor AAR, McNicholas LD, Popescu A, Marion-Poll F. Parallel Reinforcement Pathways for Conditioned Food Aversions in the Honeybee. Current Biology 2010, 20(24), 2234-2240.

• Note

  • Simcock NK. Digest: Love is in the air: Sticklebacks’ choice of mate depends on dissolved oxygen levels. Evolution 2017, 71(1), 189-190.