PhD Students

Ketevan Alania

Project Title: Non-invasive Deep Brain Stimulation to Modulate Brain Activity and Related Function

Supervisor: Dr Nir Grossman

Bshaier Allehyany

Project Title: Age, Sex, and Synaptic Proteomic Signatures in Super-Agers

Supervisors: Dr Johanna Jackson, Dr Yu Ye

Aydan Askarova

Supervisor: Dr Alexi Nott

Project Title: Discovering Risk Genes and Pathways in Alzheimer’s Disease: Integrative Enhancer-to-Gene Interactome Mapping of the Cerebral Vasculature

Ida Bomann

Project Title: Investigation of Stress-Induced Senescence Associated with Ageing and Neurodegeneration

Supervisors: Dr Raffaella Nativio, Professor Jesus Gil

Sam Boulger

Project Title: What Makes a Neuron Vulnerable to Early Alzheimer’s Disease?

Supervisors: Professor Paul Matthews, Dr Eugene Duff, Dr Javier Alegre Abarrategui

Matilda Burridge

Project Title: Investigating the Role of Inducible Proteasome Subunits in Neuronal Models of Tauopathies

Supervisors: Dr Yu Ye, Dr Johanna Jackson, Professor Amin Hajitou

Jia Qi Chong

Project Title: Deciphering Epigenetic Regulation of Astrocyte Functional States in Healthy Ageing and in Alzheimer’s Disease

Supervisors: Dr Raffaella Nativio, Professor Simone Di Giovanni

Marco Ferrari

Project Title: Investigating the Interplay between Circadian Clocks and mTOR Signalling in Microglia and Its Disruption in Neurodegeneration

Supervisor: Dr Marco Brancaccio

Tatiana Georgiades

Project Title: Multi-‘omic Characterisation of Vulnerable Synaptic Components in Alzheimer’s Disease

Supervisors: Dr Johanna Jackson, Dr Samuel Barnes

Isidora Gocmanac

Project Title: Epigenomic Profiling in Disease Relevant Cell Types

Supervisor: Dr Nathan Skene

Anjali Golding

Project Title: Elucidating Genetic Regulatory Networks in Alzheimer’s Disease and Drug Repurposing

Supervisor: Professor Paul Matthews, Dr Eugene Duff

Junheng Li

Project title: Investigation of the Falling Asleep Brain Dynamics and Its Closed-Loop Augmentation Strategy

Supervisor: Dr Nir Grossman

Sabino Mendez Pastor

Project title: How Do TREM2 Gene Variants Enhance Susceptibility to Alzheimer’s Disease?

Supervisor: Professor Paul Matthews

Alan Murphy

Project Title: Prediction of Cell-Type Specific Effects of Genetic Variants in Alzheimer’s Disease

Supervisor: Dr Nathan Skene

Natalie Ness

Project Title: Investigation of the Role of Astrocytes in Encoding Circadian Function

Supervisor: Dr Marco Brancaccio

Jean Rintoul

Project Title: Non-invasive focused stimulation of neural activity

Supervisor: Dr Nir Grossman

Eléonore Schneegans

Project Title: Multi-Omics Analyses for Human Alzheimer’s Disease Research

Supervisor: Dr. Nurun Fancy, Dr Johanna Jackson, Professor Paul Matthews

Liina Sirvio

Project Title: Alpha-Synuclein Aggregates Are Targeted for Degradation by Phase-Separated Proteasome Droplets

Supervisors: Dr Yu Ye, Professor Steve Gentleman

Janis Transfeld

Project Title: The Role of Genetic Risk Variants in Regulatory Elements in Parkinson’s Disease

Supervisor: Dr Alexi Nott, Professor Steve Gentleman, Dr Sarah Marzi

Maria Tsalenchuk

Project Title: Elucidation of Epigenetic Mechanisms Involved in Parkinson’s Disease

Supervisors: Dr Sarah Marzi, Professor Paul Matthews

Janna van Dalen

Project Title: Investigating the Epigenomic Changes in Vascular and Immune Cells of the Ageing Human Brain

Supervisors: Dr Alexi Nott, Dr David Owen

Matteo Vinao-Carl

Project Title: Closed-Loop, Personalised Brain Stimulation Intervention for Impairment of Cognitive Control

Supervisor: Dr Nir Grossman

Xingjian Wang

Project Title: Proteomic Signatures of Synaptic Vulnerability and Resilience in Alzheimer’s Disease

Supervisor: Dr Samuel Barnes

Kevin Ziegler

Project Title: Exploration of Enhancer Landscapes in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Patients with the Aim to Reveal Signalling Pathways Associated with the Disease Pathogenesis

Supervisor: Dr Alexi Nott

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.

Principal funder:

Medical Research Council