Can you tell us a bit about what you do?

I work in as a Neuroscientist at the Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge. My research is on the link between obesity, diabetes and the risk of dementia. I use these associations to guide a drug discovery programme to find new therapeutics for conditions like Alzheimer’s. Before this I worked at Imperial College London on the mechanism of action of anaesthetic drugs in the brain, how the hypothalamus regulates body temperature and the fundamental basis of why we sleep.

Outside of research, I am a Postdoctoral Teaching Associate for the Department of Biochemistry, and a Research Associate for Clare College, Cambridge where I supervise students in Natural Sciences and teach problem-based learning to medical students. I am also a reviewer and topic editor for scientific journals. On occasion I am involved in outreach activities, for instance we have an upcoming event called Clare Future Museum Voices to encourage disadvantaged students into university.

What path led you to becoming a neuroscientist?

I think I took a very irregular path. I had very little concept of science as a profession at school or what it meant to be a scientist beyond studying for a degree. In early sixth form, I was torn between applying for Computer Science or Physiology and seriously considered the Royal Navy as a post-university career – so I really empathise with the difficult decisions facing those starting their applications. In the end I went to the University of Manchester, after really enjoying the interview and open day. Everyone changes tremendously at university and I found a passion for pharmacology. I really liked the idea of trying to develop new treatments for serious disease as a way of contributing to society. After my degree, I moved to Imperial College London for an MRes in Biochemistry (where I was lucky again to meet my wife!) and then on to a PhD in Biophysics and Neuroscience with a focus on sleep and the mechanisms of anaesthetic drugs. 

What do you love about your work?

I love the diversity of my work and the large amount of freedom that comes with it. I largely decide what interesting scientific questions I am going to work on and how to go about it. I am trying to ‘repurpose’ currently available drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease and in the process, I publish research papers and hypothesis for the wider scientific community. I am also able to teach, something I really enjoy particularly small group ‘supervisions’. My work is highly interdisciplinary, so I get to work with a variety of interesting people. For instance, I have worked with biomedical engineers on designing devices to record electrical signals from the brain and more recently with clinicians to look for blood biomarkers in dementia. It also means that a large part of the job is trying to learn new things to push the research forward, for one project it might be getting to grips with the latest genetic advances in type 2 diabetes or in another implementing a computational pipeline using artificial neural networks – there is always something new. Lastly, I think science feels like a community and scientists, even across different fields, feel somewhat bonded to each other as we share a common cause.

What do you find most challenging?

Research by is nature is unknown. We only work on problems that we don’t have an answer for. This is both the excitement and the challenge. It can take a lot of work over many years and will frequently leads to more questions than answers. But ultimately, this is the only way we make progress whether in new technology and new treatments.

What would your advice be to someone interested in a career in the sciences?

Deciding that you are interested in being a scientist is much more important than a specific subject choice because there are so many ways to achieve that goal. You could just as equally be a neuroscientist from a background in computer science or physics instead of the route I took, as have many of my colleagues. Equally, if you wanted to work in environmental science there are so many routes into that field from ecology to mathematics. I think you find the path that makes you most excited or most curious and see where it takes you.