Ask Your Mentor Dementia Researcher

Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research.



In this podcast Research Assistant Shania Ibarra from University of Oxford, interviews her mentor Dr Aitana Sogorb-Esteve, Race Against Dementia / ARUK Research Fellow from University College London.



Shania is currently a Research Assistant in the Oxford Drug Discovery Institute, University of Oxford, however she will soon be started a PhD. Her current work focusses on a project that aims to discover small molecules that modulate the neuroinflammatory pathway. Prior to this, she graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences. As part of her degree, she completed a year in industry at the UCL Drug Discovery Institute where she helped to develop a triculture model using primary rat neurons, astrocytes and microglia.



Aitana is a UK Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI) Emerging Leader with a Race Against Dementia (RAD) Fellowship – jointly sponsored by Prof Jonathan Rohrer and Professor Henrik Zetterberg. Her work has mainly focused on the study of novel fluid biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease, such as those related to pathology or neuroinflammation. Most recently she has been working as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof Jonathan Rohrer's lab at the Dementia Research Centre at UCL studying fluid biomarkers in Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) as part of the Genetic FTD Initiative (GENFI).



Find out more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website:

⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/



Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer to listen rather than watch, you’ll find a video version of this podcast at https://youtu.be/-OIn9bgfCF8



This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.




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Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research.

In this podcast we welcome back Dr Josie Fullerton from University of Glasgow, this time as a mentee, proving that even mentors need mentors. Josie chats with Dr Ian Harrison, Senior Research Fellow from University College London.

Josie works on understanding the role of extracellular vesicles in stroke and hypertension. She is particularly passionate about the progression of Early Career Researchers, helping others to achieve their full potential and horse riding!

Ian looks at the function of the glymphatic system in the brain, responsible for the clearance of protein solutes from the brain parenchyma. His lab is investigating the role of this system in neurodegenerative disease, to see if it is responsible for the accumulation of misfolded protein in disease like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and test whether we can alter its function as a therapy in these disorders.

Full biographies on all our guests and a transcript can be found on our website ⁠https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk⁠

Find our more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website:

⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/supporting-your-career/⁠

Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer to watch rather than watch, you’ll find a video version of this podcast on spotify and on twitter at https://youtu.be/2Qwk-DGl5ZU

This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.


00:00 Introduction
01:43 Walk through Ian's Career
07:50 Cake Club
08:56 Doing a Masters
11:09 Taking the Viva
12:16 Dealing with rejection
13:31 Short-term contracts and job security
16:00 Pressure to change institutions
17:19 Applying for Fellowships
24:39 Building a new lab team
26:39 Ian's research and the glymphatic system
29:38 Managing the lab work
31:42 Worklife balance
34:58 Career Top Tips
41:01 Mentoring
45:31 Round-up and goodbyes


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Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research.

In this podcast experienced postdoc researcher Dr Aisling McFall, Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Glasgow interviews her mentor Dr Julie Simpson, Senior Lecturer at The University of Sheffield.

Aisling works on a group of receptors called muscarinic receptors which are the target of one of the most commonly used drugs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, she studies the M1 muscarinic receptor because this subtype is highly expressed in the brain and has been shown to be involved in cognition. The overall aim being to design better drugs for Alzheimer’s disease with fewer side effects.

Julie's main research interests are identifying and understanding neuroinflammatory contributions to ageing and dementia, particularly age-associated white matter pathology. Her research primarily focusses on the detailed immunohistological characterisation and gene expression profiling of specific cell populations in the ageing brain.

Full biographies on all our guests and a transcript can be found on our website ⁠https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk⁠

Find our more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website:

⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/supporting-your-career/⁠

Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer watch rather than watch, you’ll find a video version of this podcast at https://youtu.be/oLM3Cp3vFr8 (this also includes captions for anyone who is unable to listen).

This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.


00:00 Intro Credits
00:17 Introductions
02:31 Walk Julie's CV and Career
32:51 Speedy Career Tips
34:04 Tips for dealing with busy collaborators
35:10 How importance is science communications
36:14 How to balance home and work life
39:49 Finding inspiration
41:20 How to approach grant writing
44:30 Recap on the main takeaways
45:56 Mentoring
50:52 Thankyou's and round-up




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Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research.

In this podcast experienced postdoc researcher Dr Nikoleta Daskoulidou from the UK Dementia Research Institute at Cardiff University interviews her mentor Heather Mortiboys, Professor of Cellular Neuroscience and Metabolism at The University of Sheffield.

Nikoleta's research interests include the role of innate immunity and neuroinflammation in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. She is fascinated by the complement system and its critical role in AD pathogenesis that makes it a potential therapeutic target. She also tells us that she drinks way too much coffee, collects old stuf, and raising money for dementia charties (this include a planned skydive).

Heather studies Mitochondria and associated pathways in patient derived cells from patients with neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease and Motor Neuron Disease. Understanding phenotypes, the mechanisms leading to them and how they can be rescued for therapeutic effect. Outside work she is a mum of 2 boys, she loves long walks and a pub lunches, as well as watching sports.

Full biographies on all our guests and a transcript can be found on our website ⁠https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk⁠

Find our more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website:

⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/supporting-your-career/⁠

Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer to watch rather than listen, you’ll find a video version of this podcast in Spotify and on our YouTube Channel at https://podfollow.com/ask-your-mentor

This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.




00:00 Introduction
00:21 Meet the guests
02:17 Run through Heather's CV and Career
41:28 Speedy Career & Life Tips
45:20 Throughs on Mentoring & Roundup


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Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research.

In this podcast Dr Melissa Salazar from University College London interviews Dr Steven Quinn, Senior Lecturer & Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellow from University of York.

Melissa is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based in the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London. She is a scientist with +10 years of research experience, who is specialised in sequencing methods and data analysis to study the genetics of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Steve is a Senior Lecturer & Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellow at University of York. Steve obtained his MPhys in Physics from the University of St. Andrews and an MSc in Radiation, Oncology and Biology from the University of Oxford. After his PhD (St Andrews) and a postdoctoral position at the University of Glasgow, he took up a Lindemann Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA and in 2017, he was appointed to a Lectureship at the University of York and was awarded an Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellowship in 2019. Steve is now a Senior Lecturer, and his group uses microscopy techniques to interrogate the structure, dynamics and function of single biomolecules implicated in dementia.

Full biographies on all our guests and a transcript can be found on our website ⁠⁠https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk⁠⁠

Find our more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website:

⁠⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/supporting-your-career/⁠⁠

Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer to listen rather than watch, you’ll find an audio version of this podcast at ⁠https://podfollow.com/ask-your-mentor⁠

This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/askyourmentor/message

Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research.

In this podcast PhD Student Elizabeth (Lizzie) English from University of Cambridge interviews her mentor (and regular Dementia Researcher Blogger) ⁠Dr Kamar Ameen-Ali, Lecturer at Teeside University.

Lizzie is a PhD candidate at University of Cambridge and a proud first-generation student. Her PhD project is attempting to characterise disease-associated protein aggregates throughout the time-course of Alzheimer’s Disease, in terms of aggregate size, shape, number and brain region localisation, through single-molecule fluorescence microscopy methods. I hope to investigate the potential toxicity mechanisms of these aggregates, to aid understanding of the causes of AD onset and progression.

Kamar is a Lecturer in Biomedical Science at Teesside University & Affiliate Researcher at Glasgow University. In addition to teaching, Kamar is exploring how neuroinflammation following traumatic brain injury contributes to the progression of neurodegenerative diseases that lead to dementia. Having first pursued a career as an NHS Psychologist, Kamar went back to University in Durham to look at rodent behavioural tasks to completed her PhD, and then worked as a regional Programme Manager for NC3Rs.

Full biographies on all our guests and a transcript can be found on our website ⁠https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk⁠

Find our more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website:

⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/supporting-your-career/⁠

Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer to listen rather than watch, you’ll find an audio version of this podcast at https://podfollow.com/ask-your-mentor

This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.


00:00 Introduction
02:57 A Run Though Kamar's CV an Career
39:09 Quick Career Questions with Top Tips for Success
45:38 Mentoring
51:34 Final Thoughts


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