Research interest
I am interested in how mild decreases in brain oxygen supply, similar to that seen in early Alzheimer's disease, affect neuronal and vascular function in the hippocampus. I am investigating how this differs to other brain regions that are likely less sensitive to mild hypoxia like the visual cortex, and how these changes may link to early Alzheimer's disease progression.
For my current research project, I am using 2-photon imaging to record neuronal and neurovascular function in awake mice, which are either wild-types or mouse models of sporadic Alzheimer's disease. Mice are then housed in either mildly hypoxic or normoxic air for 2-weeks, before recordings of neuronal and neurovascular function are repeated, and brains are harvested for post-mortem immunoassays to measure levels of amyloid-beta and inflammatory markers.