I did my undergraduate studies in physics in Uruguay and subsequently, my PhD in nanomedicine in Ireland with Prof. Kenneth A. Dawson, studying interactions between nanoparticles and different types of cells. As my interest in neuroscience became stronger, I moved to France where I spent 4 years working at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience with Dr Laurent Groc and Dr Laurent Cognet where I developed techniques to study living brain tissue at the nanoscale.

I subsequently moved to the University of Cambridge to the labs of Prof. Steven F. Lee and Prof. Sir David Klenerman FRS, where I worked developing single-molecule imaging techniques to understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying dementia. I moved to the University of St. Andrews in 2019 to start my research group in the area of neurophotonics funded by an ERC Starting Grant. I currently hold a Readership in Experimental Biophysics and Biophotonics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews.

orcid.org/0000-0003-1901-1378

I come from Japan, where I graduated as the valedictorian of the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Tokyo. I then obtained my PhD at the same university, during which I discovered that the extracellular matrix protein HAPLN2 forms age-dependent aggregates in the mouse brain and promotes neuroinflammation. Supported by the Naito Foundation Postdoctoral Overseas Research Fellowship, I am now investigating the nanoscale rheology of the interstitial space of the brain.

I’m from Adelaide, Australia, where I did my BSc in experimental physics. I did my honours project on mid-IR laser development and explored that field further in an Masters of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. During my masters I became more interested in the applications of laser physics, particularly in biomedical imaging, which has led me to do a PhD with Dr Juan Varela’s lab. Funded by a John Monash Scholarship, I’m studying the dynamics of aquaporin 4 arrays and their relation to fluid clearance in the brain, using quantum dot tracking and super-resolution imaging techniques.

I graduated with distinction from CESPU, Portugal and completed my MSc in Biomedical Research, specialty Neurosciences from the Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC). After completing my MSc, I stayed at CNC, working as a research fellow in the SynBridge project, “SynBridge – A New TransSynaptic Bridge: Functional characterization of the NMDA receptor-Neurexin interaction”.

Funded by an FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) PhD scholarship, I am currently doing my PhD project under the guidance of Dr. Joana Ferreira (MIA-Portugal), Dr. Isabel Santana (Centre for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology) and Dr. Juan Varela to elucidate how EphA4 interacts to and regulates NMDAR-mediated plasticity, potentially mediating neuronal vulnerability to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).

I studied Biochemistry, specialising  in Drug discovery at the University of Dundee where I obtained a BSc Hons. Subsequently, I obtained a Masters by Research in the School of Medicine at the University of St Andrews in Dr Samantha Pitts’s Lab. My research was in the field of Cardio-oncology, investigating how drug interactions affect intracellular calcium dynamics, primarily using Lipid Bilayer Electrophysiology.

I am currently a PhD student under the supervision of Dr Juan Varela and Dr Gayle Doherty investigating the spatiotemporal dynamics of membrane-bound Leptin receptors in Alzheimer’s disease using super-resolution imaging techniques such as quantum dot tracking in living neurons.

Julian Butscher (PhD student)

Anna Conti (MSc student)

Amy Dorward (postdoc)

Pietro Esposito (PhD student)

Berta Fatás-Rodríguez (PhD student)

Friso Grace (MSc student)

Sybille Marchese (PhD student)

Vanya Metodieva (postdoc)

Amélie Sobczak (postdoc)

Anna-Lena Zepernick (PhD student)