Bshaier Allehyany

Project Title: Age, sex, and synaptic proteomic signatures in super-agers
Supervisor: Dr Johanna Jackson and Dr Yu Ye
Location: Level 7, Sir Michael Uren Hub, White City Campus, 86 Wood Lane, W12 0BZ

About Me

I am a Clinical Medicine Research student at the UK DRI at Imperial. My PhD focuses on identifying synaptic proteomic resilience signatures in the super-aging brain. My neuroscience research journey started during my undergraduate thesis project, where I studied the sex-specific effects of exercise on the gut-brain axis (intestinal permeability and neuroinflammation). I then pursued an MRes in Experimental Neuroscience at Imperial, where I completed three projects on:

1. The associations between cerebrospinal fluid markers (YKL-40, GAP43, sTREM2) and brain glucose hypometabolism and gray matter volume in the Alzheimer’s disease trajectory

2. Glial cell senescence in Alzheimer’s disease using imaging mass cytometry datasets (UK DRI at Imperial)

3. Heart-rate variability predicts eating disorder psychopathology in female adolescents

After working on glial cell markers and investigating neuroinflammatory aspects underlying Alzheimer’s disease, I became interested in understanding other aspects associated with dementia, which led me to pursue my PhD on synaptic resilience.

Qualifications

Degree Qualifications:

MRes Experimental Neuroscience, Imperial College London
BSc Honours Neuroscience and Mental Health, Carleton University

Certifications:
Health Coach Training Program, Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Research Interests

Sex-specific differences in the brain and behaviour
Resilience against dementia and cognitive decline
Neuroinflammation and glial senescence
Lifestyle interventions, dementia, and cognitive resilience
Gut-brain-microbiota axis

Presentations and Conferences

Poster presented at the Canadian Association for Neuroscience Conference on ‘Sex-specific effects of voluntary wheel running on behaviour and the microbiota-gut-brain axis in mice’, 2021.

Selected Publications

Williams, Z.A., Szyszkowicz, J.K., Osborne, N., Allehyany, B., Nadon, C., Udechukwu, M.C., Santos, A. and Audet, M.C., 2023. Sex-specific effects of voluntary wheel running on behavior and the gut microbiota-immune-brain axis in mice. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity-Health, 30, p.100628.