Alumni Brains

What is your name?

Antigone Fogel

 

Where are you from?

I was born in California, moved to Toronto when I was 7, and to Vancouver for university

 

To which class you belong to?

MSc Translational Neuroscience ‘24

 

Where and what did you study before joining Imperial College London?

I studied Behavioural Neuroscience with a minor in English Literature at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and spent the subsequent two years managing continuing medical education programs for Canadian physicians with a focus on emerging medical technology

 

How did you find your Master experience at the College?

Fantastic. It was fast-paced, challenging and immersive. The modules offered exposure to a breadth of topics in neuroscience, and the streams allowed us to tailor our coursework to topics of particular interest to us. I have never learned so much in one year. This course supports its students in developing hugely valuable and marketable skills for both academic and professional routes, and I feel we are all better equipped to take on the next steps in our lives as a result! I entered this course with no coding experience, learned how to code in Python and MATLAB, completed a machine learning dissertation project and ultimately decided to pursue a PhD in machine learning here at Imperial. A year ago, I had no intention of staying in academia, but, because of this Masters, I discovered an area of research that is deeply meaningful to me, a supervisor and lab who are extremely supportive, kind, and collaborative and a type of day-to-day work I absolutely love

 

Which research project did you work on?

I developed a predictive machine learning model and accompanying digital consultation tool to support the personalisation of prognoses for people living with dementia

 

Where are you now? 

I have just started a PhD here at Imperial

 

What are you working on?

Building on my MSc work, my PhD will focus on developing machine learning models and digital consultation tools for dementia risk screening and trajectory mapping using Electronic Health Record data

 

What is the most important lesson you learnt as a Master student?

I learned that what you get out of experiences is a direct product of how much you put into them, the value of being concise, and always being open to changing your mind!

 

How did the Master programme help you get to where you are now?

In so many ways! The course introduced me to the world of machine learning applied to healthcare and provided essential foundations in Python programming, computational methods applied to neuroscience and machine learning fundamentals. Without the technical and research skills I gained and the professional relationships I developed over the course of this Masters, I would not be where I am today

Read Antigone Fogel: ‘Without the technical and research skills I gained and the professional relationships I developed over the course of this Masters, I would not be where I am today’ in full

What is your name? 

Aglaia Freccero

Where are you from? 

Turin, Italy

To which class you belong to? 

MSc Translational Neuroscience 2022

Where and what did you study before joining Imperial College London?

BSc Biomedical Sciences at University College London

How did you find your Master experience at the College?

My Master’s experience has been extremely insightful and rewarding. The modules taught me about various aspects of the neuroscience field, and the research project allowed me to apply that knowledge in practice. I appreciated the guidance and support of the academic staff and had the opportunity to learn from and work with world-leading researchers, as well as brilliant peers

Which research project did you work on?

For my MSc research project, I joined Dr Martina Di Simplico’s lab in the Division of Psychiatry. I researched motivational abnormalities in young people with binging and purging behaviour as part of the iMAGine Study. In particular, I investigated the role of attentional biases towards food and body shape cues and their interaction with negative affect in driving eating disorder psychopathology. I am now in the process of publishing the results of my thesis

Where are you now?

I am still in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial, in the Division of Psychiatry. I am now in the second year of my PhD. Following my MSc, I graduated with a Master’s in Public Health at Imperial to translate my experience in clinical mental health research at a population level

What are you working on?

My PhD project investigates the potential of delivering AI-informed mobile behavioural interventions to support adolescents’ mental health in schools. Due to the ubiquitous use of smartphones among adolescents, mobile mental health apps might constitute a promising scalable tool for mental health prevention and early intervention. My project integrates clinical, social and data science. I am being supervised by Prof Dasha Nicholls, Dr Martina Di Simplicio and Dr Lindsay Dewa

What is the most important lesson you learnt as a Master student?

The biggest lesson I have learnt during the Master’s is to be able to carry out research independently. I believe that my Master’s experience has truly been the start of my journey to mature as a scientist. The MSc taught me how to take ownership of my research, develop appropriate research questions and methodologies and overcome challenges when things do not go as planned

How did the Master programme help you get to where you are now?

The knowledge, skills and network I acquired during my Master’s programme have been fundamental in helping me to get where I am now and being awarded the President’s PhD scholarship. The welcoming environment of the Division of Psychiatry and the solid relationships I built with my supervisors also played a significant role in my decision to stay in the Department of Brain Sciences for my PhD

Read Aglaia Freccero: ‘My Master’s experience has been extremely insightful and rewarding’ in full

What is your name?

Dana Aljarrah

Where are you from?

Jordan

To which class you belong to?

MSc Translational Neuroscience, Class of 2024

Where and what did you study before joining Imperial College London?

I completed my BSc in Medical Neuroscience at the University of Sussex

How did you find your Master experience at the College?

I found my master’s to be a huge learning experience; the MSc Translational Neuroscience course was detailed and well-organised. This course involved many learning and assessment approaches covering different aspects of neuroscience, from neural differentiation to neural networks. Overall, this course offered a comprehensive understanding of molecular and computational neuroscience, thus deepening my knowledge of the brain, its development, and its function and dysfunction. During my undergraduate degree, I learned about studies conducted at Imperial College London. When I started my master’s, I was lectured by world-leading researchers I have looked up to and it was surreal! I undertook the computational stream, something I had little experience in before this course: I found it to be incredibly rewarding

Which research project did you work on?

My laboratory-based research project was supervised by Dr Nathan Skene and aimed to develop an epigenomic technique for the profiling of single cells in post-mortem human brains. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was previously viewed as a disease of the neuron; however, recent studies highlighted the role of the microglia, the brain’s immune cell, in inherited and non-inherited AD. Despite identifying genetic risk variants for AD, specific microglial subtypes remain elusive. We employed a cutting-edge microfluidics technique to isolate single cells from post-mortem human brain-sorted nuclei cultures. We then successfully integrated this technique with our lab’s protocol for single-cell epigenomic mapping. When this approach is applied to sorted microglia, it aims to provide us with an understanding of how AD-related genetic variants affect immune cell function, and how they contribute to disease onset and progression. By identifying the distinct epigenomic profiles of subpopulations of microglia, researchers can develop more targeted therapeutic strategies for AD. I enjoyed this project and found it to be deeply insightful. I was responsible for designing and executing experimental protocols, analysing my data and presenting my outcomes during weekly lab meetings. This improved my scientific writing and communication skills

Where are you now?

London, UK

What are you working on?

I am a research assistant at the Neurogenomics Lab at the UK Dementia Research Institute with Dr Nathan Skene and I am also seeking PhD opportunities. My current focus is on further optimising the technique we developed during my master’s project and contributing to the lab’s objectives in discerning the specific cell types involved in Alzheimer’s disease

What is the most important lesson you learnt as a Master student?

The importance of taking the initiative. This course is only one year long but because I took the initiative, I could work on three projects throughout the year. I wanted to explore different areas of neuroscience I had not yet explored during my undergraduate degree: psychiatry, computation and neurogenetics. During the first project, I analysed data from patients with eating disorders. In the second project, I processed data from human clinical trials to build a machine-learning model for clinicians and scientists. While tutoring the new students undertaking the Translational Neuroscience MSc (2025) course, I was happy and proud to see them take the initiative and channel their excitement about the course

How did the Master programme help you get to where you are now?

This experience shaped me into a well-rounded scientist with a diverse skillset, from grant writing to data analysis and machine learning. I look forward to applying those skills in the future. This programme also provided many networking opportunities, leaving me with lifelong connections with peers and world-leading researchers

Read Dana Aljarrah: ‘I found my master’s to be a huge learning experience’ in full

What is your name?  Rou Ann Lim

Where are you from?  Malaysia

To which class you belong to? MSc Translational Neuroscience, Class of 2024

Where and what did you study before joining Imperial College London? I studied BSc Medical Biosciences also at Imperial College London before pursuing my Master’s

How did you find your Master’s experience at the College? My Master’s experience was extremely rewarding. Despite some challenges, I appreciated the opportunity to push my limits, gain new skills, and learn valuable techniques. I found much support from my personal tutor, Professor Payam Barnaghi, my supervisors (Professor Adam Hampshire, Valentina Giunchiglia and Ziyuan Cai), the whole department and my peers. As a student representative, I also enjoyed supporting my peers and working with the department to improve the student experience. Overall, it was an academically stimulating, supportive and enriching experience

Which research project did you work on? My MSc thesis focused on modelling cognitive and motor impairments using British 1946 birth cohort data. The aims were to refine cognitive metrics obtained from the online cognitive test data using a computational model called the Iterative Decomposition of Cognitive Tasks (IDoCT) to enhance their precision and sensitivity. My analysis was on eleven different cognitive tests assessing various cognitive domains. The findings indicated that IDoCT metrics, particularly from memory-related tasks, emerged as robust predictors of brain biomarkers, including amyloid levels, brain volume, and brain boundary shift integral metrics. The machine learning analyses predicted motor function using the IDoCT metrics, employing decision trees and random forest algorithms for their superior performance. These models successfully forecasted the severity of right pronation-supination and kinetic tremor hand movements

Where are you now? I am currently based in London

What are you working on? I will soon start a clinical data scientist internship at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The aim is to design a graphical user interface for clinicians to access a large language model that predicts delays in cardiology treatment times. Additionally, I aim to pursue medicine in September 2025

What is the most important lesson you learned as a Master’s student? The most important lesson was learning to be independent, proactive, and resourceful. Self-improvement and acquiring new skills are essential, but knowing when to seek help from experts, such as professors, is equally crucial in shaping one’s learning experience

How did the Master’s programme help you get to where you are now? Before starting, I knew artificial intelligence (AI)/ data science was becoming crucial in healthcare, and the programme gave me the skills to leverage it effectively. I developed technical expertise in data analysis, machine learning, and coding and soft skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership. These experiences have laid a strong foundation for my future as a clinician-scientist, particularly in neurosurgery, where AI can predict surgical outcomes and enhance precision. This foundation will allow me to apply AI to improve patient outcomes while carefully evaluating the associated benefits, risks and biases

Read Rou Ann Lim: ‘It was an academically stimulating, supportive and enriching experience’ in full