News about new staff and updates from the Maria Jimenez-Sanchez, Jemeen Sreedharan, Sandrine Thuret, Marc-David Ruepp, Ahmad Al Khleifat and Ammar Al-Chalabi lab groups.
New Staff
We are pleased to welcome Annie-Rose Nicholas who will be joining the School of Neuroscience Professional Services team as our new Senior Business Operations Manager.
Annie brings with her a broad range of expertise having worked in senior operational roles at the London School of Economics and Imperial College London, and most recently at UKICE (UK in a Changing Europe) at King’s College London.
Annie officially started on 7th April and will be working across both campuses, providing support to all four departments in the school.
We will be arranging for Annie to meet key members of the school and attend various PI and department-level meetings so she can meet as many of you as possible. In the meantime, please take a moment to introduce yourself and make Annie feel welcome.
Maria Jimenez-Sanchez lab news
Congratulations to Keshvi Shah for successfully passing her PhD thesis on 13 March!! (see photo below)
A new project grant in collaboration with Jackie Mitchell has been awarded by Alzheimer’s Research UK. In this 3-year project, we will use cellular and mouse models to investigate the role of astrocyte-secreted chaperones in preventing the propagation of pathological tau.
News from Jemeen Sreedharan’s lab
Dr. Jemeen Sreedharan, Dr. Izzet Mehmet Akcay and Dr Alfredo Iacoangeli have been awarded a grant from the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation to fund a two-year research project entitled “Investigating the Roles of SCFD1 and G2E3 In ALS“. This project seeks to elucidate the functions of these ALS-associated genes using human iPSC-derived motor neurons.
Dr Izzet Mehmet Akcay has been awarded a Rosetrees Foundation Seedcorn grant to fund a one-year research project entitled “Investigating the role of CFAP410 in DNA damage response and motor neurone survival in ALS”. This project, built on the outcomes of a previous ARUK-funded collaborative project, will be carried out in the Sreedharan lab, and aims to uncover how an ALS-linked CFAP410 mutation affects the DNA damage response in iPSC-derived motor neurons.
Sandrine Thuret lab news
Congratulations to Sahand Farmand for leading on a new paper from the Thuret Lab and collaborators exploring examining the role of physical exercise and neurogenesis in counteracting cognitive ageing published in May 2025 issue of Ageing Research Reviews. Sahand explores the critical role of exercise in decelerating, restoring and rejuvenating structural and functional pathways that are associated with hippocampal ageing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2025.102725
Congratulations to Dr Chiara de Lucia who received the Vice Dean of Research Seed Fund to start pioneering work Modelling Human Traumatic Brain Injury in vitro. She will be collaborating across BCN with Andrea Serio and Claire Troakes as well as with Aminul Ahmad from the Wolfson SPaRC.
Congratulations to Zarah Hanniff for winning the Judges Best Poster presentation Prize at the 2025 IoPPN Postgraduate Research Student Showcase for her work in “The effect of psilocin on the differentiation of human hippocampal progenitor cells during neurogenesis in vitro in the context of major depressive disorder”.
News from Dr Ahmad Al Khleifat and Ammar Al-Chalabi who recently welcomed a parliamentary visit to the King’s MND Care and Research Centre, and also received a £1 million donation from the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. In addition, Ammar and Ahmad secured funding for 1,000 whole-genome sequences to expand Project MinE data in the UK and globally, in collaboration with Biogen and Eli Lilly. See BBC news story on link below:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yp3xl9dq6o
