Zeynep Baykam

I completed my undergraduate degree at UCL with a BASc in Arts and Sciences, majoring in Neuroscience. During my bachelor’s, I developed an interest in neurodegenerative diseases and focused my dissertation on the role of tau pathology in the clinical progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease. I then worked at the UK Dementia Research Institute as a research technician in Bartels Lab, focusing on the prion-like aggregation mechanisms of alpha-synuclein using biochemical techniques. Afterwards, I obtained my MSc in Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, St Peter’s College, which was fully funded by the Sim Studentship. My master’s thesis was completed under the supervision of Dr Sally Cowley and focused on the role of innate immunity in the prion-like propagation of tau pathology. In particular, I investigated the role of microglia and type I interferons on tau propagation using different mammalian cell types, including iPSC-based cellular models. I currently work as a research assistant in the Ryan group, culturing iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons for phenotypic analysis under one of the Oxford-GSK IMCM projects.