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Grants over £500k
Applied Therapeutics, Inc.
- Prof. Mary Reilly (Dept. of Neuromuscular Diseases) awarded £660,159 for research into ‘to explore MRI features of Sorbitol Dehydrogenase Deficiency (SORD) Neuropathy and investigate MRI as a secondary outcome measure in a clinical trial’ starting 13 March 2022 for 24 months.
BBSRC
- Prof Kenneth Harris (Dept. of Neuromuscular Diseases) awarded £604,514 for research into ‘Neuronal mechanisms of learning-evoked stimulus orthogonalization’ starting 1 July 2022 for 36 months.
MRC
- Dr Lauren Byrne (Dept. of Neurodegenerative Diseases) awarded £1,585,304 for research into ‘INfLUENCE-HD: Influencing juvenile-onset Huntington's disease monitoring with remote Neurofilament light quantification’ starting 1 July 2022 for 60 months.
- Dr Declan Chard (Dept. of Neuroinflammation) awarded £935,664 for research into ‘The Dynamics And Clinical Relevance Of Grey Matter And Periventricular White Matter Pathology In Multiple Sclerosis’ starting 1 January 2022 for 36 months.
- Dr Rob Pitceathly (Department of Neuromuscular Diseases) awarded £550,000 for leading a consortium (MitoCluster) to advance research into human conditions linked with mitochondrial dysfunction. Start date tbc for 60 months.
- Professor Sonia Gandhi, Dr Christian Lambert, and Professor Karl Friston awarded £1,024,349 for "Multiscale modelling of progression in Parkinson's disease" starting 1st August 2022 for 36 months.
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Focus: Education
Thank you to our PGT students who took part in the recent OfS Postgraduate Taught Student Survey (PGS) Pilot, where we achieved a 58.7% response rate, well above the overall UCL response rate of 46.4%. Results from the survey will provide insights into how UCL can continue to improve the experience of postgraduate study. You can find examples of how student feedback has already inspired changes on the You Shaped UCL pages.
We would like to highlight student reps Francisca Do Sacramento Andrade Silva and Christiane Zhu, MSc Brain and Mind Sciences, for their work with David Blundred on improving the student and supervisor agreement template, that is used for all students when embarking on their research projects and we hope this improves the conversations around expectations for both students and supervisors in the following academic year.
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PGR update
In the academic year 2021/22 we have made some changes to how the PhD programme is run at the IoN. One of these was the introduction of cohorts based on 3 set enrolment dates. We created a programme of activities covering transferable skills relevant to all our PhD students.
In May we appointed early career researchers (ECRs) at the IoN to lead the cohorts we have created. The overarching aim of the cohort programme is to promote social and academic cohesion. Dr Vino Vivekanandam and Dr Ariana Gatt have been appointed as ECR cohort leads for students who enrolled in February and April 2022, with Kiran Samra and Paige Mumford ECR leads for students who will enrol in September 2022 and Simon Griesius for students who will enrol in February and April 2023.
Lastly, we have trialled a ‘buddy scheme’ which pairs existing PhD students with new students to reduce isolation and offer a chance to share informal knowledge about the IoN. We would like to extend sincere thanks to all those who volunteered as part of this initiative.
Huge thanks go to Mr Des Bates and Ms Tracy Skinner for all their hard work in implementing and leading on all the changes we have made this year.
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UCL celebrates 2022 graduates
Congratulations to our graduating class of 2022, we are all immensely proud of you! ION students and family and friends were invited to join the ceremonies on 7th July 2022. The ceremony was an opportunity to celebrate all of your hard work and achievements, and students were invited to capture their fond memories from their time at UCL.
Dr Akshay Nair, who graduated with a PhD in Computational Neuropsychiatry at Queen Square Institute of Neurology, said: “What I’ve enjoyed most about UCL is the community. I’ve made some great friends here and the academics are obviously brilliant – but the most important thing is that they’re very keen to collaborate, so I think the academic community at UCL is amazing.”
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UCL Education awards
The Academic Rep of the Year for Brain Sciences is Heather Sampson, who has worked hard to ensure that students are represented in decision making and implemented several positive changes for students
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Faculty of Brain Sciences Postgraduate Research Conference 27th May 2022
Fellow postgraduate researchers across the faculty shared research, networking and building connections.
- Keynote Speaker: Prof. Sanjay Sisodiya, ION Deputy Director Sustainability & Climate Change & Consultant Neurologist
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Focus: Health, Safety & Lab Operations
New deputy Lab Operations Manager
A warm welcome to the new QSIoN Deputy Lab Operations Manager Sue Noy. In addition to her role as Lab Manager for DND, Sue will support the Ion Lab Operations Manager with day to day H&S, estates, facilities and lab operational duties.
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New IoN Laser Safety Officer
QSIoN has appointed Kaiyu Zheng as the new Laser Safety officer for Queen Square Labs. Kai is a very knowledgeable researcher and laser specialist in DCEE and will support QSIoN staff with any questions related to laser safety and act as a local approver for laser risk assessments. For any queries around laser safety please contact k.zheng@ucl.ac.uk
Safety Training Reminder:
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Focus: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
ION EDI annual report and new EDI website
We are pleased to share with you the first annual IoN EDI report. It contains information about our staff and student data, as well as our progress and our strategic priorities. Finally, you will find useful links and resources for the IoN community.
The report can be found on the new ION EDI website
Building your Career website
We would also like to encourage the Early Career Researchers to visit our new “Building your Career” website . This also includes career paths, promotion processes, appraisal processes for all staff, including Professional and Technical Services.
Technician Leadership Programme
We started the IoN Leadership Programme with the first full day training session on the 30th of March, welcoming a cohort of 10 participants.
"Since Day 1 I have noticed a difference in how I hold myself in large team meetings, giving myself authority to talk and hold space, I have received praise from my supervisor on the ideas I have contributed to meetings and how confidently I have spoken about my PhD work (when unexpectedly asked to talk about it in a meeting). I have been working on my listening skills and asking questions more. Very excited to see you all next week."
"I found it was helpful to talk through our experiences and be held accountable for what we have done and it was nice to meet up in person and just have a chat! Since day 1 I have been trying to notice the different ways people around me lead in different situations and I have been trying to take more initiative and feel I have been able to make more actions where in the past I would of maybe waited for someone else to move things forward. I look forward to day 2!"
We are proud to say that we are the first Department in UCL offering a bespoke training for people in these professional groups. We hope we will be able to expand to other departments in UCL in 2023.
PhD student Javier Bautista featured in the LGBTQ+ Faces in STEM at UCL exhibition
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Webinar: Mental Health in Academia, 10th May 2022.
Speakers: Professor Gipi Schiavo; Dr. Samantha De La-Rocque. An honest conversation on the Mental Health crisis we are currently experiencing in Academia and how can we tackle it as a community. Help us break the silence and break the cycle.
Recording of the session
“Ramadan in the workplace” 29th March 2022
An opportunity to learn about Ramadan and understanding our Muslim colleagues' experiences in the workplace during this period, led by Saadia Rahman.
Awarding Gap and Race Equality workshop 14th June 2022
Sukhi Bath Project Manager, BAME Awarding Gap Project and Mike Sulu Co-chair of the Race Equality Steering Group, STEM lead for Leading Routes, and Engineering Sciences Faculty Lead for the BME Awarding Gap Project.
Creating an inclusive and supportive environment for the LGBTQIA+ community 5th July 2022
Department of Imaging Neuroscience EDI Training Series.
The session covered LGBTQIA+ terminology, Diversity and inclusion within science, A practical guide to help and create change.
2022 ION Student Survey
Thank you to all the IoN PGR and PGT students who have answered the 2022 IoN Student Survey. We will be taking all your feedback on board and implementing targeted actions to address these.
Astrea Inspirational Female Line manager award
Congratulations to Dr Helene Crutzen who was nominated for this award.
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UCL Inclusion Awards 2022
The award winners were announced at a ceremony on 13 July 2022. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated: you're all winners to us!
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Cassie Hugill and Javier Sanchez Bautista won awards for the Provost’s award for Embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Championing LGBTQ+ Inclusion respectively.
Dr Ana De Faro and Prof Helene Plun-Faveau were nominated for Staff EDI Group / Network Member of the Year
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Focus: Careers
International Alzheimer’s Research Society & UCL survey turns spotlight on ECR life and challenges
Far-reaching international survey of early career researchers (ECRs) reveals feelings on a wide range of topics including job satisfaction, experiences in the workplace, discrimination, publishing, life during the pandemic, conferences, moving and overall challenges
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Focus: Wellbeing
ION yoga: online sessions
ION continue to organise online yoga sessions. Please see IoN Intranet wellbeing pages for further information.
Please keep an eye on IoN Intranet wellbeing pages for updates, as well as the list of resources from UCL Health and Wellbeing Human Resources
If you’re doing something that you’d like to share, we want to hear about it!
- IoN wellbeing Teams is a space to chat with colleagues, take a break and share tips and photographs, including Pets Corner.
- or write to Sandra Porteous s.porteous@ucl.ac.uk or tweet and tag us @UCL
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Wellbeing champions at Queen Square
 
IoN wellbeing champions: Catherine Hills and Nadine Dijkstra, Jacky Bauer, Linda Taib (above).
Spotlight article on ION wellbeing champions in UCL wellbeing newsletter
How do wellbeing champions work well together within Institute of Neurology?
Linda: It helped that we knew each other before we were champions, knowing we can step in for each other.
Jacky: I agree, it's really useful having a few of us so we can brainstorm ideas too.
Jacky and Linda: We also get great support from our own managers, the Institute manager Dr Helene Crutzen, the central wellbeing team and the EDI team at UCL.
IoN Mental Health First aiders
The Mental Health First Aiders are trained to spot the early signs of mental ill-health in others. They are taught to confidently signpost someone to appropriate support, both internal and external, and they are equipped to deal with emergencies too. More staff will be trained in Autumn 2022.
The IoN Mental Health First Aiders are listed on the ION EDI website
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“Thank you Friday” initiative aimed at our IoN Professional Services colleagues
Anyone can send a quick email to send a special thanks to an IoN Professional Services staff member - there is no right or wrong reason to say thanks, it is quick and easy, and highly motivational. The sender can ask for it to be anonymous also. Send an email, with a short message and name of the addressee(s) to Sandra Porteous s.porteous@ucl.ac.uk before 12 noon on the first Friday of each month.
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Office Green Impact
Please contact sarah.lawson@ucl.ac.uk if you would like to join the ION Green Office team.
Lab Sustainability (LEAF)
If you would like to participate in IoN’s labs sustainability team please get in touch with s.czieso@ucl.ac.uk
Dr. Sue Noy looks at how LEAF labs are taking steps to mitigate single-use plastics in laboratories
Find out more about Sustainability at ION on our intranet and website
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UCL Easter Switch off
Thank you to everyone who pledged to Switch Off this Easter.
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We are delighted to announce that ION is a joint winner of the pledging competition: alongside Stapleton House. We will each receive £100 towards sustainable projects.
All of your pledges resulted in a combined saving of 69 tonnes of carbon – that’s equivalent to planting 1,143 trees.* This saved UCL an impressive £39,710 over the Easter closure – more than a sizable nest egg.
Read more about the Switch Off results.
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EnvironMental Issue wins Bronze in Clios Health 2022 awards
This campaign involved the production of a special-edition newspaper highlighting the impact of climate change on health, which used ink derived from algae, pulp from sustainable forests, and was manufactured using wind-powered energy.
It was distributed in Glasgow during COP26 within Scotland’s broadsheet newspaper, The Herald. A digital version, designed to make the lowest environmental impact with no imagery, colour and simple text, also ran on The Herald website and on social channels. The work was also supported by the National Brain Appeal
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Sustainability and Climate change survey
As part of our continuing work at the Institute on sustainability and climate change, and with more temperature records about to be broken, this is a good time to distribute a planned survey to understand attitudes and concerns around climate change specifically amongst people with neurological diseases, their carers and healthcare/research professionals.
We previously ran a similar survey through the Epilepsy Society after a heatwave, during the pandemic, and had >1000 responses.
The government department BEIS carried out a validated survey of a large sample of the UK population, and have given us permission to base our survey on theirs, which also provides a ready-made population-based group for comparisons as needed.
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The survey takes ~15 minutes. Please do feel free to circulate this to neurological charities with which you may work, your teams and to complete it yourselves. We will feed the results back.
Link to the survey
This is part of an approved service evaluation, and can be shared with charities supporting people with neurological conditions. There is a group of researchers, including climate scientists, ready to analyse the data. The hope is that the results will inform research and management strategies.
UCL Neuroscience Symposium 22nd June 2022
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Public Engagement
UCL and In2scienceUK’s programme In2reseach nominated as a finalist in the UK Social Mobility Awards.
In response to the lack of diversity in higher education In2Research was co-founded by UCL’s Cassie Hugill, Public Engagement Manager at the Department of Imaging Neuroscience, alongside the social mobility charity In2scienceUK.
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Beginning at UCL, the programme now extends to University of Cambridge and City University of London. In2research is supported by £3 million pounds of funding and sponsorship.
‘It is wonderful to be a finalist at this year’s UK Social Mobility Awards. We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved through the In2research programme and look forward to continuing to support greater diversity within academia.’ Cassie Hugill.
In2reseach is a finalist in the Innovation category, with winners announced on Thursday 13th October 2022.
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Public Engagement Awards 2022
Three awards were presented to recognise outstanding contributions to the strong culture of public engagement at UCL’s Department of Imaging Neuroscience on 7th June 2022.
The Rising Star Award was given to Lydia Mardell for her designing and running workshops with young people with epilepsy to make OP-MEG scanning more comfortable, delivering UCL World Stroke Day events and supporting student placements.
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The second prize to be announced was for Excellence in Public engagement, which was jointly awarded to both Madeleine Payne and Tobias Hauser. Madeleine led Becoming: Exploring Adolescence, a project which engaged marginalized young people under-served by neuroscience. Tobias is leading the OCD and The Brain project, engaging people with lived experience of OCD to shape his future research.
Finally, the Outstanding Public Engagement Project Award was presented to The OPM Collaboration for their innovative project which engaged young people with epilepsy and parents to improve the OP-MEG scanning experience for young people.
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Shell Shock beyond the War – A European perspective 25 April 2022
The symposium provided an opportunity for academic staff, clinical staff and students to discuss the psychological consequences of war, a fascinating and multidisciplinary topic with huge relevance for historical and contemporary debates.
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Dementia Demystified: breaking barriers to public understanding of dementia
Members of the public gathered at the Francis Crick Institute to learn about cutting edge dementia research from scientists at ‘Dementia Demystified’, an open event run in collaboration with the UK DRI to enhance public understanding of the condition.
The event, held on the evening of 31 March, was organised by Dr Georgina Starling, a postdoctoral researcher, and Catherine Heffner, a PhD student, both based in Prof Adrian Isaacs’ lab (UK DRI at UCL) and funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).
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The event kicked off with short talks from Prof Jonathan Rohrer (UK DRI Clinical Co-investigator at UCL) and Prof Selina Wray (UK DRI Co-investigator at UCL), who gave an overview of the basics of dementia, with opportunities for audience members to ask questions.
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Crick Discovery Day June 2022
Patani Lab and Gandhi Lab joined a packed day of pop-up science fun! From exciting experiments and hands-on activities, to explosive science shows
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Removing language barriers to empower patients with Parkinson’s disease in Sub-Saharan Africa
Dr Mie Rizig (UCL Brain Sciences) used the Global Engagement Funds to create culturally sensitive health literature about Parkinson’s disease in 12 African languages.
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A Life in the Day of PCA
An illustrated & easy-to-read poetry book created by Martina & Michael, both living with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) that aims to bring joy, hope & understanding to all who read it. Available now in aid of Rare Dementia Service
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New Starters and staffing news
Welcome to staff who joined ION in the past 3 months.
Dr Eleonora Lugara; Miss Sian Rose; Dr Matthew Gegg; Ms Kylie-Ann Montgomery; Mr Yazead Buhidma; Mr Anestis Passalis; Mr Arran Speirs; Dr Martina Vanova; MrAndrew Landau; Miss Felisia Hardjo; Ms Aude Biehler; Mr Damandeep Singh Rathore; Dr Nitin Sahi; Ms Heather Ormsby; Mr Giuseppe Uras; Mr Peter Harley; Mr Guru Prasad Padmasola; Mr Liam Trench; Mr Daniel Bates; Miss Chloe Dennis; Ms Eleanor Stafford; Mr Keith Tritton; Dr Olga Tiurikova; Mrs Anna Lebedeva; Dr Reza Maroofian; Mrs Maria Brezitski; Ms Elisa Cali; Ms Marina Rodriguez Lopez; Miss Kristina Zhelcheska; Dr Alexandra Louka; Ms Meaghan Spedden; Miss Ronja Christensen
We wish our colleagues who have recently left IoN all the very best for the future.
Professor Cathy Price Reflects on her time as Head of the Department of Imaging Neuroscience
The UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology recently announced that Professor Martina Callaghan has been appointed as the new Head of Department of Imaging Neuroscience. This position has been held by Professor Cathy Price for the past 7 years, alongside her role of Director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, which she will continue.
Meet our Director! Great profile of Michael Hanna in Lancet Neurology
The making, and makings, of Michael Hanna
Two Profs, Two Marathons, Two Continents...
Helene Plun-Favreau is running London Marathon on October 2nd 2022, and Selina Wray is running the Chicago Marathon on October 9th 2022.
Professor Jon Schott took part in the London to Brighton bike ride June 2022 for Team ARUK
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IoN Handbook
Remember to check the IoN Handbook for further information on everything you need to know about working at the Institute: feedback is always welcome!
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Upcoming Queen Square events.
Queen Square Inaugural Lectures 2022
The following lectures will be held in 33 Queen Square. Please RSVP to qsioneventsrsvp@ucl.ac.uk
- 13th September 2022: Professor Kirill Volysnski Dept. of Clinical & Experimental Epilepsy; Professor Vladimir Litvak, Dept. of Imaging Neuroscience
- 18 October 2022: Professor Helene Plun-Favreau, Dept of Neurodegenerative Disease; Professor Pietro Fratta, Dept of Neuromuscular Diseases
- 29 November 2022 : Professor Antonella Spinazzola, Dept of Clinical & and Movement Neurosciences; Professor Christos Proukakis, Dept of Clinical & and Movement Neurosciences
Third UCL Queen Square Motor Neuron Disease Centre Virtual Symposium 9 September 2022, 10am-6pm
Lancet Neurology 20th Anniversary lecture The Institute will host the Lancet Neurology 20th Anniversary Lecture, which will be given by Professor Carol Brayne, University of Cambridge. 29 September 2022, 5pm-6pm
The 3rd Queen Square Movement Disorders Short Course: 6-7th October 2022
The course is designed for neurologists, neurology trainees, and movement disorders enthusiasts from other neuroscience specialties, from the UK, Europe and worldwide.
ION Annual Address and Symposium 24th November 2022, Lecture Theatre 33 Queen Square
This year's Annual Address will be given by Professor Dame Anne Johnson, Chair & Vice Dean UCL Institute for Global Health and President of the Academy of Medical Sciences . The Address will be held at 5.30 pm.
This year we will also be hosting a Symposium which will start at 1.00pm, and is only open to UCL staff and students.
RSVP to qsioneventsrsvp@ucl.ac.uk by 14th November 2022.
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UCL news
- UCL Strategic Plan 2022-27
- A consultation with our community – staff, students, alumni, key partners – to develop a strategic plan for the next five years.
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Open Access: policies and new ways of publishing
NIHR, Cancer Research UK and Horizon Europe (including ERC) have all introduced new open access policies recently. These policies, like UKRI’s and Wellcome’s, require open access on publication under the CC BY licence; but the funding arrangements are different. Researchers will find links to the policies and funding arrangements in the Funders’ Requirements section of UCL’s open access home page.
NIHR and Horizon Europe have also launched new ways of publishing open access. These include Open Research Europe, which is a dedicated platform, funded by the European Commission, for Horizon 2020- and Horizon Europe-funded researchers to disseminate their work rapidly and transparently. NIHR has just launched a similar platform, NIHR Open Research
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UCL COVID-19 research and resources
Rise in Guillain-Barré syndrome following AstraZeneca vaccine
A correlation between a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine & a small but significant rise in cases of the serious neurological condition Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has been identified by UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology scientists
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Emily Blackburn and Professor Giampietro Schiavo
Awarding Gap and Race Equality Summary.pdf
