Ask Your Mentor - Professor Heather Mortiboys

06/08/23 • 48 min

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Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research. In this podcast experienced postdoc researcher Dr Nikoleta Daskoulidou from the UK Dementia Research Institute at Cardiff University interviews her mentor Heather Mortiboys, Professor of Cellular Neuroscience and Metabolism at The University of Sheffield. Nikoleta's research interests include the role of innate immunity and neuroinflammation in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. She is fascinated by the complement system and its critical role in AD pathogenesis that makes it a potential therapeutic target. She also tells us that she drinks way too much coffee, collects old stuf, and raising money for dementia charties (this include a planned skydive). Heather studies Mitochondria and associated pathways in patient derived cells from patients with neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease and Motor Neuron Disease. Understanding phenotypes, the mechanisms leading to them and how they can be rescued for therapeutic effect. Outside work she is a mum of 2 boys, she loves long walks and a pub lunches, as well as watching sports. Full biographies on all our guests and a transcript can be found on our website ⁠https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk⁠ Find our more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website: ⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/supporting-your-career/⁠ Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer to watch rather than listen, you’ll find a video version of this podcast in Spotify and on our YouTube Channel at https://podfollow.com/ask-your-mentor This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.

00:00 Introduction
00:21 Meet the guests
02:17 Run through Heather's CV and Career
41:28 Speedy Career & Life Tips
45:20 Throughs on Mentoring & Roundup

00:00 Introduction
00:21 Meet the guests
02:17 Run through Heather's CV and Career
41:28 Speedy Career & Life Tips
45:20 Throughs on Mentoring & Roundup

Previous Episode

Ask Your Mentor - Dr Steven Quinn

1 Recommendations

Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research. In this podcast Dr Melissa Salazar from University College London interviews Dr Steven Quinn, Senior Lecturer & Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellow from University of York. Melissa is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based in the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London. She is a scientist with +10 years of research experience, who is specialised in sequencing methods and data analysis to study the genetics of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Steve is a Senior Lecturer & Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellow at University of York. Steve obtained his MPhys in Physics from the University of St. Andrews and an MSc in Radiation, Oncology and Biology from the University of Oxford. After his PhD (St Andrews) and a postdoctoral position at the University of Glasgow, he took up a Lindemann Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA and in 2017, he was appointed to a Lectureship at the University of York and was awarded an Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellowship in 2019. Steve is now a Senior Lecturer, and his group uses microscopy techniques to interrogate the structure, dynamics and function of single biomolecules implicated in dementia. Full biographies on all our guests and a transcript can be found on our website ⁠⁠https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk⁠⁠ Find our more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website: ⁠⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/supporting-your-career/⁠⁠ Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer to listen rather than watch, you’ll find an audio version of this podcast at ⁠https://podfollow.com/ask-your-mentor⁠ This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.

Next Episode

Ask Your Mentor - Dr Julie Simpson

1 Recommendations

Ask Your Mentor Podcast, from Dementia Researcher, in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK). Mentees interviewing their mentors, talking careers, lessons learned and what they’ve discovered, that could help you forge a successful career in dementia research. In this podcast experienced postdoc researcher Dr Aisling McFall, Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Glasgow interviews her mentor Dr Julie Simpson, Senior Lecturer at The University of Sheffield. Aisling works on a group of receptors called muscarinic receptors which are the target of one of the most commonly used drugs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, she studies the M1 muscarinic receptor because this subtype is highly expressed in the brain and has been shown to be involved in cognition. The overall aim being to design better drugs for Alzheimer’s disease with fewer side effects. Julie's main research interests are identifying and understanding neuroinflammatory contributions to ageing and dementia, particularly age-associated white matter pathology. Her research primarily focusses on the detailed immunohistological characterisation and gene expression profiling of specific cell populations in the ageing brain. Full biographies on all our guests and a transcript can be found on our website ⁠https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk⁠ Find our more about Alzheimer's Research UK and how they support early career researchers on their website: ⁠https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/research/for-researchers/ecr/supporting-your-career/⁠ Like what you hear? Please review, like, and share our podcast - and don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode – and if you prefer watch rather than watch, you’ll find a video version of this podcast at https://youtu.be/oLM3Cp3vFr8 (this also includes captions for anyone who is unable to listen). This podcast is brought to you by University College London / UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in association with Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia who we thank for their ongoing support.

00:00 Intro Credits 00:17 Introductions 02:31 Walk Julie's CV and Career 32:51 Speedy Career Tips 34:04 Tips for dealing with busy collaborators 35:10 How importance is science communications 36:14 How to balance home and work life 39:49 Finding inspiration 41:20 How to approach grant writing 44:30 Recap on the main takeaways 45:56 Mentoring 50:52 Thankyou's and round-up