The Story of James Quinn

The thing that inspires me most is my research, I’m currently trying to understand the mechanisms of different types of dementia, what causes the brain cells to die and what are potential ways of detecting dementia progression in patients using blood samples. We currently have no drug to treat the causes of dementia, they all only work on the symptoms, to develop drugs, we need accurate tests to find the patients to test on, this prospect gets me out of bed each morning at work I’m doing in the lab is trying to develop new blood tests to find patients to test on. With better tests, we can find patients for pharmaceutical companies to test their drugs to treat the causes of dementia on and hopefully find some new disease-modifying treatments.
After completing my undergraduate degree at the University of Sussex, where I had the opportunity to work on proteins involved in the different types of dementia, I knew that a PhD was the next step. I had visited Manchester a lot when I was younger to see family, but still coming from down South it was a bit of a change, especially with the weather! Fortunately, I now make sure to always carry an umbrella, but I’ve fallen in love with the city, the opportunities are incredible, I have made some fantastic friends, done some enjoyable science and had some incredible experiences.