Group Members

Bio: I am a Research Associate in the Nott group at the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial. I joined the lab after completing my PhD, which was funded by the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh studentship at King’s College London in the lab of Dr. Fiona Wardle. My PhD research project characterised cis-regulatory elements of TBXT, a transcription factor involved in metastatic cancers in lung, prostate and breast tissue, and in a rare cancer of the spinal column called chordoma. During my PhD, I visited the lab of Dr. Gómez Skarmeta at Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD) in Seville, Spain on an European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) fellowship for extended training on assays and tools used in gene regulation studies. Prior to starting my PhD, I worked as a Research Assistant in the lab of Prof. Faith Osier at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Wellcome Trust, Kilfi, where I led a recombinant protein expression and protein micro-array facility in a malaria study. My current project in the Nott group exploits different chromatin and epigenetic assays to characterise enhancer maps associated with neurodegenerative disease risk variants.

Email: r.yaa@imperial.ac.uk

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.

Email: pmwells@ic.ac.uk

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.

Email: j.transfeld21@imperial.ac.uk

Bio: I am a graduate student in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London. Prior to 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 most recently at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). Of all the knowledge I gained during this time, neurological questions and the application of single cell sequencing technologies excited me the most. For my PhD, I am particularly interested in applying the latest epigenome based single cell technologies to uncover the well-kept secrets of dementia.

Email: k.ziegler21@imperial.ac.uk

Bio: I am a master’s student in Applied Genomics at Imperial College London. For my research project I will be working under the supervision of Dr Alexi Nott on characterising roles of repressive elements in glial cells to understand brain disorders. Prior to my master’s studies, I completed my BSc in Biology at Queen Mary University of London. My final year BSc dissertation focused on how politics influence comprehension of Covid19 in general population of the USA for which I used raw data from Twitter.

Email: aydan.askarova21@imperial.ac.uk

Bio: I am a Master’s student in Molecular Neurosciences at the University of Amsterdam. I am visiting the Nott group for my second research project of my Master’s. The first project I completed at the University of Amsterdam, where I investigated H3K79 methylation by Dot1L. Before starting my Master’s, I completed my BSc in Biology and Medical laboratory Research at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. For this, I completed a project at the University of Oxford, where I investigated the influence of Runx1 on Endothelial-to-Haematopoietic transition. This is where I discovered my interest in epigenomics. During my visit here, I will be working with Kevin Ziegler and look into the epigenomics of the brain vasculature. I hope to follow up my Master’s with a PhD and apply my previous experiences.

Email: j.van-dalen22@imperial.ac.uk

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.

Email: a.dapkute22@imperial.ac.uk

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.

Email: parisa.rahbar22@imperial.ac.uk

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.

Email: michelle.lam19@imperial.ac.uk

Bio: I am studying for an MSc in Translational Neuroscience at ICL, during which time I will complete my thesis in the Nott lab - investigating microglial enhancer dynamics in Alzheimer’s disease risk variants in early development under Dr Reuben’s supervision. In addition, I assist post-mortem brain preservation in the Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Tissue Bank. Prior to my studies in ICL, I earned my bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences at Durham University, studying joint biology and psychology. I am curious about all things (epi)genetics and (epi)genomic technology related in neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases with a special interest reserved for dementia, ASD and schizophrenia. In the future, I hope to pursue a PhD that encapsulates these interests.

Email: katarina.gregorovicsova22@imperial.ac.uk