2020

Lorena Jiménez Sánchez – Wellcome PhD Student in Translational Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh

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I was born and grew up in Madrid, Spain, where I completed my bachelor’s degree (BSc Hons) Health Biology, Universidad de Alcalá) and my master’s degree (MSc Neuroscience, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid). My Wellcome Trust PhD Programme at The University of Edinburgh includes three lab rotations during the first year and I joined the small vessel disease research team for several months. I was supervised by Professor Joanna Wardlaw and collaborated with other group members (Dr Ellen Backhouse, Dr Una Clancy, Olivia Hamilton and Catriona Stewart, the latter supervised by Dr Michael Stringer). My project’s title was “Sex differences in cerebral small vessel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis”. We aimed to explore sex differences in cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). Globally, females tend to live longer than males and age-dependent neurodegenerative conditions like SVDs are becoming increasingly prevalent. Thus, sex-stratified data may help design care strategies across the lifespan. I worked on this project from the 20th of April until the 29th of June 2020. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the incidence of SVDs, the presence and distribution of risk factors for SVDs and the severity of SVDs features in males versus females.

Before this project, my main research work focused on Parkinson’s Disease. I’ve attended the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies – FENS – conference twice (2018 and 2020) to present some of my work in Madrid and Edinburgh. I’ve always enjoyed scientific illustration, and I’ve helped research colleagues by making figures and illustrating their papers.

All my experience with the team was virtual due to COVID-19 restrictions, but I’ve always felt supported and had people around to help. Working with the University of Edinburgh small vessel research team has taught me the importance of a clearly defined methodology for the appraisal of evidence and the data synthesis. I consider I’ve also improved my critical thinking when interpreting the scope and limitations of research. My PhD project will focus on the neural mechanisms of attachment in early life but I’m sure the skills I’ve gained with this project will be essential for my future PhD and postdoctoral work.

Publication

Jiménez Sánchez et al (2021) 'Sex differences in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis'.

Publication link

Tetiana Poliakova – MSc Student,  Biomedicine, Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden)

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My time at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS) at The University of Edinburgh, although short, was one of the most rewarding experiences in my research career. I came to Edinburgh in the Spring semester of 2020 to pursue my master’s thesis towards a degree in Biomedicine at Karolinska Institutet. During my time at the CCBS I worked with Professor Joanna Warlaw and Dr Antoine Vallatos to develop a translational image analysis protocols to quantify disease burden in a novel rodent model of small vessel disease (SVD), ATP11beta rats (developed by Professor Anna Williams). Initial training on clinical SVD scans under the supervision of Dr Michael Stringer and subsequent exploration of preclinical images of ATP11B knockout and control rats allowed us to adapt a clinical rating rubric to track possible SVD features seen on rodent scans. As a result of my master thesis project, we presented examples of potential SVD features on rodent MR images which will be confirmed by histology in the next steps of the study. Additionally, we applied a set of simple measurements to track differences in corpus collosum thickness as an indication of white matter changes and ventricle size to assess the presence of ventriculomegaly. We hope that use of the proposed tools will enhance the transferability and value of structural MR images in SVD preclinical research.

I chose the University of Edinburgh for my thesis work not only for its well-known excellence in neuroimaging, my main research interest, but also because of the long-standing and fruitful collaboration between my home institution, Karolinska Institutet, and the University of Edinburgh through Eurolife partnership. I first learned about Eurolife network during my participation in NordBioMedNet Summer School in Computational Biomedicine in August 2019. I was intrigued to learn more about the network and all participating institutions. Subsequently, in addition to Erasmus mobility scholarship, my travelling and stay in Edinburgh was supported by Eurolife travel grant.

After defending my master thesis at Karolinska Institutet, I graduated with a Master’s degree in Biomedicine. It is a huge honour for me to graduate from one of the top medical universities in the world while completing my master thesis in another top world university and, even more special, in the leading lab on small vessel disease. My time at the CCBS proved to be an important stepping stone to my dream career as a medical researcher in the future. I hope to use valuable skills I acquired in SVD  Research Group to pursue a PhD degree in Neuroscience in the near future.