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Dr Alexi Nott – LGBTQ+ Champion
"As a gay scientist, I have seen how creating a supportive environment on campus can have a huge impact on the experience of LGBTQ individuals in STEM. As the LGBTQ champion for the department, I hope to increase visibility and promote a welcoming and inclusive place to work.”
Alexi recently formed the LGBTQ+ Allies Network in the Department of Brain Sciences to promote LGBTQ+ visibility in the Department and to provide a bridge with the wider LGBTQ+ STEM community. Read more and keep up to date with events taking place on the Allies Network page.
Dr Diana Benitez Jimenez – Mental Health First Aider (MHFA)
“The MHFA training helped me to identify, understand and support colleagues who could be suffering from mental health issues. With this knowledge, I hope I can become a point of contact for students, ECRs and staff when they are experiencing emotional distress. I understand how draining or overwhelming the Academic/Research environment could be and sometimes we just need someone to listen non-judgmentally to feel better. I would like my colleagues in the UK DRI at Imperial know that I could be that person who will listen and if needed I could offer guidance to improve their well-being.”
Dr Jo Jackson – Athena Swan and EDI Lead
"I am the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead for the department and chair the People, Culture and Engagement committee to make the department a place where everyone has opportunities to thrive. We have recently been awarded a Silver Athena Swan award for our commitment to gender equality however we are aware that there is still work to do to support under-represented groups in science.
A significant amount of the EDI work involves ECRs and there is an opportunity to get involved with a cause that you feel passionate about. The department and the College offer a range of support involving staff networks (such as ImperialAsOne, Imperial 600, Able@Imperial, Women@Imperial), mentoring and coaching as well as training in areas such as unconscious bias and active bystander."
How temperature and circadian rhythms intersect to regulate a protein shown to protect against neurodegeneration
A new study led by Dr Marco Brancaccio (UK DRI at Imperial) and Dr Marieke Hoekstra (former UK DRI at Imperial, now VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research) offers a deeper insight into how a neuroprotective pathway is regulated both by temperature and the body clock. This research, published in the journal PNAS, could open up new therapeutic avenues for neurodegenerative disease. Read more on the UK DRI website
Introducing Cynthia Sandor: Pioneering earlier detection of Parkinson’s
Dr Cynthia Sandor, former Emerging Leader at the UK DRI at Cardiff, joins the UK DRI at Imperial as a Group Leader, where she will be tackling early diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
With a background in genetics, Dr Sandor uses computational methods to bring greater understanding to the underlying molecular mechanisms of Parkinson’s. Read more about Cynthia's work on the UK DRI website.
