Home » News Events » The University of Edinburgh SVD Research Group Celebrated the International Women and Girls in Science Day

The University of Edinburgh Small Vessel Diseade Research Group has celebrated International Women and Girls in Science Day last week with a photographic session.

The pictures show the research group on Small Vessel Diseases who work on studies to understand how damage to the blood vessels in the brain can damage the brain and how to stop or reverse this. They use advanced brain scanning techniques, measurements in people, and sophisticated analytical methods in their research. The group co-ordinates local studies, large UK-wide and international studies including a randomised clinical trial to prevent vascular dementia. They are a very diverse, multi-skilled group, who host many visitors from all over the world. They are funded by the Row Fogo Trust, the MRC, Fondation Leducq, EU Horizon 2020, Stroke Association, British Heart Foundation and others.

 

 

Some of the SVD research team female staff members are:

Olivia is a final year PhD student on the Welcome Trust 4-year PhD programme in Translational Neuroscience. She has a background in English language and Linguistics, but her current work is investigating how cognitive impairments might relate to structural brain changes in cerebral small vessel disease. 

Una Clancy is a doctor working in stroke research, specifically interested in strokes which affect the small blood vessels on the brain, identifying factors related to disease progression and regression.

Dany is a neuroscientist working on clinical studies of stroke and small vessel disease. She is interested in learning about how the brain changes after stroke and how this might relate to cognitive decline.

Carmen Arteaga is a doctor working in stroke research and small vessel disease. She has a special interest in identifying risk factors, improvement on early disease recognition, treatment and clinical outcomes in patients.

Emilie Sleight is a PhD student measuring the ability of cerebral blood vessels to dilate using magnetic resonance imaging and relating this parameter to cerebral small vessel disease, which is a disease that causes vascular dementia and stroke.

Donna McIntyre has worked with Edinburgh Imaging since 2015. Alongside specialised MRI scanning for research studies, she is involved in quality assurance analysis to ensure our scanner is continually performing to the highest standard and optimising images.  

Maddy Murphy has been with Edinburgh Imaging for nearly 2 years as a specialised research radiographer. She has a background in clinical governance and MRI patient and staff safety. 

Agnieszka has a background in psychology and marketing. She supports various research sites and ensures that the procedures behind the research run smoothly. She updates the Perivascular Spaces in Small Vessel Disease website, helps with science dissemination, coordinates events and invoice payments, and helps with anything that is needed to coordinate the work of several research groups.

  

  

 

 

The photo shows the research radiography team with our Director, Professor Joanna Wardlaw (In order: Lucy Kesseler, Donna McIntyre, Professor Joanna Wardlaw, Elaine Sandeman, Charlotte Jardine, Sean Denham, Gayle Barclay and Iona Hamilton) We perform the University’s world-leading research into understanding and treating severe brain diseases using very advanced scanning of the brain with Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In the picture is one of the University’s cutting edge 3 Tesla MRI machines. In the last 20 years, this team’s research work has helped to improve outcomes for patients with different types of stroke by informing guidelines all over the world, and has opened up entire new fields of understanding into how blood vessel diseases can damage the brain. They also work on other forms of dementia, multiple sclerosis, brain tumours, and how to keep the brain healthy from childhood to old age. They are funded from many sources, including the Wellcome Trust, MRC, Scottish Funding Council, Row Fogo Charitable Trust, Fondation Leducq, EU Horizon 2020, Dunhill Charitable Trust, TheirWorld, Stroke Association, British Heart Foundation, and many others.