Alumni Members

Bio: I am a Research Associate in the Nott group at Imperial, within the department of Brain Sciences, part of the UK Dementia Research Institute. I completed my PhD in Genetic Epidemiology, entitled “Host genetic factors underlying the link between the microbiome and rheumatoid arthritis”, with the Department of Twin Research at King’s College London, supervised by Claire Steves and Frances Williams. I obtained my degree, BSc (Hons.) Medical Sciences from the University of Exeter. During my degree I undertook a research year at the University of Bristol and the Bristol Brain Bank investigating the role of the renin angiotensin system in Alzheimer’s disease; This work sparked my interest in Alzheimer’s disease. Following my PhD I continued at KCL as a Research Associate, before joining Imperial College London in the lab of Abbas Dehgan affiliated with the UKDRI to characterise the metabolomic profile of Alzheimer’s disease. In the Nott group, my focus will be investigating the transcriptome and epigenome of the Alzheimer’s disease brain. My aim moving forward is to continue to contribute to the field of Alzheimer’s disease research.

Bio: I am a PhD student in the Nott lab at the UK Dementia Research Institute and I am enrolled in the Clinical Medicine Research (Brain Sciences) program at Imperial College London. Before I joined the lab, I completed my B.Sc. in Applied Biology and M.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Germany. As part of this, I performed a research project for my bachelor in the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the University of Bonn on the characterization of a glia-specific knock-out mouse line, hereby developing a keen interest for the field of neurological diseases. To complete my M.Sc., I investigated molecular processes occurring during osteogenesis using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In the Nott lab I plan to integrate my experience on working with iPSCs to elucidate functional relevance of neurodegenerative disease-associated risk variants.

Bio: I am a graduate student in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London sponsored by the UK Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI). Before starting my PhD in the Nott lab, I completed both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biotechnology at Hochschule Mannheim, University of Applied Sciences. During this time, I took the opportunity to gain research experience at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, the Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas, and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). After various experiences in research, I realised that my curiosity was primarily focused on deciphering the many questions surrounding the brain and applying the latest multi-omics technologies to answer them. Having witnessed my grandfather suffer from vascular dementia for almost a decade, I dedicate my PhD to researching the vascular component of the brain in the context of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recognizing that AD is predominantly influenced by genetics, particularly with a significant portion of AD genetic risk variants located in non-coding regions, my approach is to investigate the environmentally responsive enhancer landscape of cerebrovascular cell types. By combining various enrichment strategies tailored for cerebrovascular cell types with an epigenetic assay called CUT&Tag, which enables the examination of regulatory elements such as active enhancers across the entire genome, I aim to elucidate at the bulk and single-cell level whether cerebrovascular-specific enhancers are impacted by AD genetic risk variants.

Bio: I hold a BSc in Natural Sciences from Durham University and MSc in Translational Neuroscience from Imperial College London, blending molecular neuroscience and psychology. I thoroughly relished my time during my master’s project at the Nott lab, exploring early-life susceptibility to Alzheimer’s through cell-type-specific gene regulatory elements, which earned me a Distinction. Currently, as a wet lab technician, I’m harnessing skills in nuclei isolation and ChIP-seq while delving into iPSC cell culture to unravel neuroepigenomic roles in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Balancing roles in the lab and at Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Tissue Bank, I plan to strive towards a PhD in molecular neuroscience. The field intrigues me with its unanswered queries, and I’m thrilled to contribute to research seeking those answers.

Bio: I am a Research Technician following completion of my master’s in the Translational Neuroscience programme under the supervision of Dr. Alexi Nott. I previously graduated from the University of Nottingham where my final year research project involved examining the association of atypical language laterality with Schizotypal personality disorder. My research focuses on nuclear factors associated with modulation of microglia disease-associated states using a mouse model of inflammation. In the future I hope to pursue my research interests further by completing a PhD in the field of inflammation and neurodegenerative disease.

Bio: I am an MRes student in Experimental Neuroscience at Imperial College London. Previously, I also completed my BSc in Biological Sciences at Imperial. During my first two MRes rotations, I characterized the TSC1 epilepsy model and explored the effect of MSK1/2 on APP processing in Alzheimer's disease. Currently, I am in my third rotation in Dr. Alexi Nott's lab supervised by Kevin Ziegler. My project focuses on the promoter epigenetic landscape of neurovascular cell types in Alzheimer's disease. I am passionate about neuroscience research and plan to pursue further PhD studies in this field.

Bio: I am currently pursuing my research master's degree in Experimental Neuroscience at Imperial College. I hold a BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience form the University of Sussex, where in my Final Year Project I investigated the role of miRNAs on Hox gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster and have previous experience in a scientific publishing role. As a part of my second master's project rotation, I am researching how the cell types expressed in the midbrain are associated with risk variants of developing Parkinson's disease at Dr. Alexi Nott's lab under the supervision of Janis Transfled. I aspire to start PhD studies after my master's degree.

Bio: I am a master’s student in Neuroscience and Biotechnology at the University of Bordeaux. In the Nott lab, I will do my second internship and work on my Master thesis. I completed my first master’s internship in EPFL, Gräff Laboratory of Neuroepigenetics, where I worked on a project researching novel rejuvenation approaches for Alzheimer's disease. I previously graduated from Vilnius University where I studied Medicine and earned an MD degree, followed by a Neurology residency which is expected to be completed in 2025.

Bio: I am a current Master's student pursuing Applied Genomics at Imperial College, with a previous degree in Genetics. My strong interest in neuroscience led me to undertake a research internship abroad, where I delved into studying the genetic underpinnings of neurodegeneration in animal models. Currently, I am enthusiastic about completing a project, under the guidance of Dr. Alexi Nott, that focuses on exploring the impact of genetic risk associated with Alzheimer's disease on the epigenome of neurovascular cell types.

Bio: I am a masters student on the MSc Translational Neuroscience course at Imperial. In the Nott lab, I will be under the supervision of Janis Transfeld. For this project, I will be directly converting patient fibroblasts into dopaminergic neurons to better understand age-related changes of the epigenome in Parkinson's disease. I also completed my BSc at Imperial on the Medical Biosciences course. For my final year project, I performed lipidomic analysis of isolated lysosomes from an Alzheimer's disease mouse model using LC-MS/MS. In the future, I hope to undertake a PhD to further develop my laboratory skills and understanding of neurodegenerative processes.

Bio: I am a psychiatrist by background who has taken a year away from clinical training in order to do my MRes In Experimental Neuroscience at Imperial. I will work on my second research project in the lab of Dr Alexi Nott. I am a graduate of King's College London (MBBS) and Imperial College (BSc in Medical Sciences - Haematology). Having developed an interest in the role of neuroinflammation in neuropsychiatric diseases during my clinical work I am confident that, under the supervision of Dr Nott, I will be able to learn a lot about the molecular and biochemical basis of neuroinflammation. I hope I will be able to pursue my specific interests further at a doctoral level sometime in the near future.

Bio: I am master’s student in the Experimental Neuroscience programme at Imperial College London. I will be completing my first project under the supervision of Dr. Alexi Nott. Before I joined Imperial, I completed my BSc in Neuroscience at the University of Leeds. My final year project involved evaluating the temporal characteristics of neurogenesis in the postnatal mammalian olfactory bulb.