Dementia Researcher Blogs

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Dementia Researcher blogs are written and then narrated by the authors. Through this podcast channel, we share the narrations, so you can listen back where ever you get your podcasts, as well as on our website - careers, research and your science. Brought to you by www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk - everything you need, all in one place.

4h ago

Dr Ajantha Abey - Research Habits I Wish I’d Started Earlier in My PhD

Dr Ajantha Abey narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher. There are already about a thousand blogs telling you to pace yourself and embrace failure. This is not one of them. Ajantha has written up the unglamorous systems he either set up early in his PhD and still thanks his past self for, or wishes he had. Experiment numbering. File names that actually tell you something. One place for every note. A reference manager with tags that earn their keep. Figures made as you go rather than in a panic at the end. Plus a spreadsheet he cheerfully describes as a colour-coded monument to procrastination. None of it will save you from a failed experiment. All of it will save the version of you who is three years down the line, trying to work out what on earth happened in experiment 17. https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-research-habits-i-wish-id-started-earlier-in-my-phd/ -- Dr Ajantha Abey is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Kavli Institute at University of Oxford. He is interested in the cellular mechanisms of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other diseases of the ageing brain. Previously, having previoulsy explored neuropathology in dogs with dementia and potential stem cell replacement therapies. He now uses induced pluripotent stem cell derived neurons to try and model selective neuronal vulnerability: the phenomenon where some cells die but others remain resilient to neurodegenerative diseases. -- Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk This podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. -- Leave us a Tip https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social Download and Register with our Community App: https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
4d ago

Dr Clíona Farrell - An Alzheimer’s Cabaret

Dr Clíona Farrell narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher. After a long week at AAIC in London, Clíona swapped the conference hall for the Bloomsbury Theatre and a one-woman cabaret called Unforgettable. It tells the story of Tamara, who lost her father to familial young-onset Alzheimer's at 45, and who lives with a 50% chance of carrying the same mutation. What Clíona expected to be an evening of tears turned out to be funny, dynamic and strange in the best way, with a bubble machine, a lit-up hula hoop and a family horse among the cast of characters. But it also landed somewhere personal. Clíona carries her own family experience of an autosomal dominant condition, and watching Tamara perform the agonising question of whether to get genetic testing made her rethink what her research is really for. A blog about grief, dark comedy, and why public engagement has to be a two-way conversation. https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-an-alzheimers-cabaret/ -- Dr Clíona Farrell is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London. Her work focuses on understanding neuroinflammation in Down syndrome, both prior to, and in response to, Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Clíona completed her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience in Trinity College, and then worked as a research assistant in the Royal College of Surgeons studying ALS and Parkinson’s disease. She also knows the secret behind scopping the perfect 99 ice-cream cone. -- Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk This podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. -- Leave us a Tip https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social Download and Register with our Community App: https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
4d ago

Dr Connor Richardson - Small Vessel Disease: A Quiet Driver of Dementia

Dr Connor Richardson narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher. Ask most people what causes dementia, and they will reach for amyloid and tau. But there is another contributor sitting behind almost half of all cases worldwide, and it rarely gets the attention its scale deserves. Connor introduces cerebral small vessel disease: what it does to the tiny vessels deep in the brain, why it so often travels alongside Alzheimer's rather than on its own, and what recent imaging work suggests about spotting the people most at risk before decline sets in. There is a hopeful thread running through it, too, because the main risk factors are ones we already know how to treat. https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-small-vessel-disease-a-quiet-driver-of-dementia/ -- Dr Connor Richardson is a Neuro-epidemiology Research Associate at The University of Edinburgh. His research interests lie in using advanced statistical modelling and machine learning to measure dementia risk. Connor blogs about his research, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, and sometimes his Pomapoo’s. -- Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk This podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. -- Leave us a Tip https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social Download and Register with our Community App: https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Jul 19

Professor Louise Serpell - Football, CTE and the Science Protecting Future Players

Professor Louise Serpell narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher. As excitement builds around the 2026 World Cup final, Louise examines the darker side of the beautiful game: the relationship between repetitive head impacts, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and dementia. She explains what distinguishes CTE from Alzheimer’s disease, explores progress towards diagnosis and treatment, and considers how changes to the rules of sport could protect future generations. https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-football-cte-and-the-science-protecting-future-players/ -- Professor Louise Serpell is an Emerita Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Sussex. Her research focuses on how proteins misfold and form amyloid structures linked to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, using approaches from structural biology and molecular biophysics. Louise completed her DPhil at the University of Oxford and later established her own research group in the UK. Alongside her research career, she has been active in mentoring, public engagement, and supporting early career researchers. Find Louise on LinkedIn -- Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk This podcast is brought to you from University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. -- Leave us a Tip https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social Download and Register with our Community App: https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Jul 9

Beccy Owen - When Experiments Fail: Staying Positive in Research

Beccy Owen narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher. Every researcher knows the sinking feeling of an experiment failing after days, weeks or months of effort. In this blog Beccy talks about how she has learnt to stop letting failed experiments dictate her mood, and why they do not make you a bad scientist. She shares the best advice she has been given, from a lab manager who told her not to let a bad result follow her home, to knowing when to stop and re-evaluate rather than keep going down a dead end. Along the way she looks at accidental discoveries like X-rays and penicillin, the value of work-life balance, and why asking colleagues for help is a sign of a good scientist, not a failing one. https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-when-experiments-fail-staying-positive-in-research/ -- Beccy Owen is a PhD Researcher at the University of Warwick, exploring how tau pathology disrupts neuronal ion channels and brain network activity in Alzheimer’s disease. As part of the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Programme, her work uses electrophysiology to better understand the molecular drivers of neurodegeneration. Originally from the Welsh countryside, Beccy’s passion for dementia research was shaped during her postgraduate studies and through personal experience with a family member living with the condition. She will be sharing her journey, insights, and lessons learned throughout her PhD here on the blog. Find Becky on LinkedIn -- Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk This podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. -- Leave us a Tip https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social Download and Register with our Community App: https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Jul 9

Harriet Greene - How I Found My Way into Dementia Research: Give to Gain

Harriet Greene narrates her blog written for Dementia Researcher. Harriet wrote her first essay on Alzheimer's at 15. What followed was not a tidy line to Oxford. She missed medicine by one mark, took her insurance place in Neuroscience at Queen Mary, topped her cohort's dissertation grades, then packed a backpack for a tiny island off Bali to learn to dive. A broken arm in Australia sent her home, a summer as a divemaster in Corfu taught her more than she expected, and somewhere between the dive boat and the papers she kept reading, she realised she missed science. In her first blog for Dementia Researcher, Harriet, now a second-year PhD researcher in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford, introduces the principle behind everything she does: give to gain. It is a story about mentors in unlikely places, her mum's question "Why not you?", and why a path does not have to be perfect to get you where you want to go. https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-how-i-found-my-way-into-dementia-research/ Harriet Greene is a PhD student at the University of Oxford researching dementia prevention, with a focus on how vascular risk factors such as hypertension affect the brain. Her project models the neurovascular unit in vitro, allowing her to explore biological mechanisms creatively and collaborate across departments and disease areas. Supported by the British Heart Foundation for research consumables, Harriet is also interested in biotech start-ups and translating lab discoveries into patient benefit. Outside academia, she is a scuba diving instructor, shell collector and lover of the sea, with a strong belief in paying kindness forward within the research community. Leave us a Tip https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social Download and Register with our Community App: https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Jul 7

Professor Frank Gunn-Moore: Do Cats, Dogs and Dolphins Get Dementia Too?

Professor Frank Gunn-Moore narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher. In this blog, Frank asks whether dementia is really unique to humans. Starting with the story of his cat Cardhu, and moving through research on dogs, dolphins, whales and other long-lived species, he explores what animal biology can teach us about memory, ageing, Alzheimer’s pathology and why some species may be more vulnerable, or more protected, than others. https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-do-cats-dogs-and-dolphins-get-dementia-too/ -- Professor Frank Gunn-Moore is an academic and researcher in neurodegeneration and dementia research at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His group has advanced understanding of the early cellular and biochemical mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, including links between mitochondrial and synaptic dysfunction, and has pioneered new models including the identification of Alzheimer’s-like pathology in cetaceans. His research has also identified potential therapeutic targets, novel signalling pathways such as FRMD6/Willin in the Hippo pathway, and contributed to patented optical technologies developed with industry. He has published over 150 research papers across biology, chemistry and physics, reflecting the interdisciplinary breadth of his work. Leave us a Tip https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social Download and Register with our Community App: https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher
Jul 6

Dr Sam Moxon - Why Some Ideas Never Get a Chance

Dr Sam Moxon narrates his blog written for Dementia Researcher. You develop something genuinely different, cost it, build the team, submit it feeling confident, and then the rejection lands. In this blog, Dr Sam Moxon sits with the researchers who keep watching their most original ideas fall at the panel while safer, more familiar work sails through. He asks a question the field tends to avoid: are our funders too risk averse to back the ideas that might actually change things, and what does that caution do to the people early in their careers who cannot afford to fail? https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-why-some-ideas-never-get-a-chance/ -- Dr Sam Moxon is a biomaterials Research Fellow at University of Birmingham. His expertise falls on the interface between biology and engineering. His PhD focussed on regenerative medicine and he now works on trying to develop 3D bioprinting techniques with human stem cells, so that we better understand and treat degenerative diseases. He is also the Founder and CEO of Aegis FibreTech. Outside of the lab he hikes through the Lake District and is an expert on all things Disney. -- Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk This podcast is brought to you by University College London in association with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. -- Leave us a Tip https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support Follow us on social media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunityhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social Download and Register with our Community App: https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

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A biweekly podcast for early career researchers, bringing together fantastic guests to discuss their research, careers + much more. Dedicated to sharing the science, encouraging collaborations, attracting more people to the field of Alzheimer's and other dementias research, and supporting those already here to succeed. Brought to you by https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk at University College London, in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia - everything you need, all in one place. supporting early career researchers across the world Register today to recieve weekly bulletins, with news, funding opportunities, jobs, and events.

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