Biography
Emilia’s background is in computational neuroscience and neuroimaging techniques including fMRI and EEG, having completed a BSc in Neuroscience from University College London and an MSc in Translational Neuroscience from Imperial College London. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Engineering at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Dr Gemma Bale (Neuro Optics Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering) and Professor John O’Brien (Old Age Psychiatry Research Group, Department of Psychiatry).
Dementia is currently highly misdiagnosed, in which rates of diagnosis vary greatly across clinics and countries, largely due to the lack of objective biomarkers which are both specific to dementia subtypes and sensitive to disease severity. Unlike traditional neuroimaging approaches such as fMRI, Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) has unique applications in dementia research as it is more accessible to clinicians, vulnerable patients, and those in intensive care.
Emilia’s research seeks to use NIRS to explore neurometabolic alterations at different dementia stages and severities, and across types of dementia. The aim of this research is to develop novel biomarkers and offer better-informed dementia diagnosis and monitoring.
Following her PhD, Emilia hopes to work on developing neurotechnology to assist those with dementia for either disease-modifying treatments, disease monitoring or via brain-computer interfaces.
