I am a tenured group leader at the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences and an Emerging Leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh. Research in my group is funded by Race Against Dementia, The James Dyson Foundation, The Alzheimer’s Society, Medical Research Scotland and The Wellcome Trust. My diverse team focuses on understanding causes and consequences of synapse loss in neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. My group use a variety of techniques spanning post-mortem human brain, mouse organotypic brain slice cultures and live human brain slice cultures. We work closely with an interdisciplinary group of clinical, pharmaceutical and academic collaborators in Edinburgh and globally. Outside of the lab, I am passionate about communicating our work to the public and wider research community. I regularly participate in public engagement through TV, radio, written press and podcast interviews and have been invited to speak on numerous panels and podcasts relating to career progression in dementia research. Before coming to Edinburgh in 2019, I obtained a first-class degree in Natural Sciences (specialising in Neuroscience) from the University of Cambridge (2010-2013).  I went on to complete my PhD in the lab of Prof. Michael Coleman at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge (2013-2016) before undergoing a postdoc at the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair (University of Cambridge 2016-2019).