Meet the team

Dr Ryan West

Group Leader

Ryan is an Alzheimer's Society Dementia Research Leader Fellow and group leader at the sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN). He moved to Sheffield in November 2019 following his time as a Junior fellow at the University of Manchester. Prior to that he was a postdoc and PhD student at the University of York.

Postdoctoral Research Associates

Dr Ruth Thomas

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Ruth is currently working on an Alzheimer's Society funded project combining Drosophila models and patient-derived cell models to explore mechanisms Underpinning Disease Heterogeneity in C9Orf72-related Frontotemporal Dementia

Dr Debarati Bhattacharya

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Debarati is a postdoctoral research associate at the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience. She is working on exploring the role of exercise in potentiating Motor Neuron Disease using the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Her research is funded by My Name'5 Doddie Foundation and is part of a joint project led by Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Dr Johnathan Cooper Knock and Dr Ryan West

Dr Kriti Gupta

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Kriti is a postdoctoral research associate at the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience. Her current research focuses on the role of exercise in potentiating Motor Neuron Disease using patient-derived cell models. This research is part of a joint project led by Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Dr Johnathan Cooper Knock and Dr Ryan West and is funded by My Name'5 Doddie Foundation

PhD Students

Duncan Garner

PhD Student 2020 - present

Duncan's research is focused on the molecular mechanisms of C9orf72-releated Frontotemporal Dementia and Motor Neurone Disease with a focus on identifying pathways perturbed by DPR-protein interactions using pathologically relevant repeat length (>1000 repeat) DPR fly models

Charlotte Gale

PhD Student 2022 - present

Charlotte's research, funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) is looking at how disease causing C9orf72 mutations lead to disruption of neuronal cytoskeleton and axonal trafficking

Ergita Balli

PhD Student 2023 - present

Ergita's research, funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), is looking at how disease causing mutations impair hypoxic response pathways and the implication this has on motor neurone disease.

Abbie Stretch

PhD Student 2023 - present

Abbie is an MRC DiMeN student. She is investigating whether prodromal alterations in vision can be used as a biomarker for Parkinson's disease and how we can utilise Drosophila models for translational drug-discovery research

Technicians

Meha Madhu

Technician 2023 - present

Meha is a technician working on the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation funded research project investigating the role of exercise in potentiating Motor Neuron Disease. This research is part of a joint project led by Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Dr Johnathan Cooper Knock and Dr Ryan West