🧠 Running to Outrun Dementia

My PhD project analyses brain tissue and cell model datasets to model responses to Alzheimers pathology – clumps known as 'tau tangles' and 'amyloid plaques'. I am trying to identify what goes wrong inside the cell, where proteins (the building blocks of the brain) move in the presence of pathology, and why some 'resilient' people can cope better with more of it than others.

Alongside my research, I regularly fundraise for ARUK – joining charity ambassadors 'the FTD brothers' (my partner Cian and his brother Jordan) on their 900 mile run across the UK this time last year. They have shown incredible resilience in the face of losing their mum at just 52 to early onset FTD, and discovering they also carry the rare mutation that caused it. This is what drives me on my personal and professional mission #ForACure