LATEST NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2023
A key member of our team has some exciting news in the world of soccer this month! Enya Carthy (daughter to our amazing facilitator of all things CONNECT, Amy) played in the 2023/24 UEFA Women’s Under-17 European Championship qualifying campaign!
The Ireland Women’s Under-17s travelled to Poland for their Round 1 games as they face off against the hosts, as well as Iceland and Norway.
Competing in Group A2, James Scott’s team will be in action from October 12-18.
In the process of our research, we consider it essential that we remain in touch with the heart of the sports we love, so that we do not lose sight of the communities that exist in this space – including on the global stage, and this one is of particular personal importance to us. GO ENYA!
JUNE 2023
Various members of CONNECT-TBI congregated in Austin, Texas this year for the National Neurotrauma Society (NNS) Symposium 2023, where we also took the opportunity to hold our annual General Assembly. We were thrilled to welcome Candace Gantt, Founder and Co-Director of Mind Your Brain Foundation, to give updates on the charity’s work and partnership with our project. Thank you, Candace!
We must also offer massive congratulations to CONNECT team members, Dr Andrea Schneider, and PhD candidate Natalie Jenkins, on their respective awards:
Andrea was awarded the NNS Rising Star Award
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Natalie was awarded 1st Place for her poster presentation
and was a winner of the NNS diversity award
APRIL 2023
Huge congratulations to University of Pennsylvania’s Eddie Lee for receiving the Excellence in Neuroscience Mentoring Award at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC)! The Alzheimer’s Association tweeted: “Dr Lee is dedicated to educating the next generation of neuroscientists and physician-scientists, with service on over 50 thesis committees”
MARCH 2023
WE ARE HIRING!
TECHNICIAN POSITION NOW OPEN AT GLASGOW BRAIN INJURY RESEARCH GROUP
Willie Stewart’s team are eager to find a lab technician to enhance our complement of amazing people working on the CONNECT-TBI project. You needn’t be Scottish, but you do need to be in Glasgow…!
NOVEMBER 2022
WE ARE HIRING!
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE POSITION NOW OPEN AT GLASGOW BRAIN INJURY RESEARCH GROUP
If you are (or want to be) based in Glasgow, Scotland, we are seeking a Research Associate to make a contribution to our growing body of research and publications. You will be working closely with Prof Willie Stewart and the rest of the Glasgow team, as well as collaborating internationally with other CONNECT-TBI sites!
APPLY NOW!
OCTOBER 2022
CONGRATULATIONS TO DR EMMA RUSSELL!
Dr Emma Russell has successfully been awarded an early postdoctoral fellowship, funded by the Chief Scientist Office, to pursue a 3-year study titled “HEalth And Dementia outcomes following Traumatic Brain Injury (HEAD-TBI)”, which will begin in October 2022.
HEAD-TBI is designed to leverage comprehensive, population level health datasets to explore the complex interaction between traumatic brain injury and late health outcomes and their relationship to dementia risk.
The project will be supervised by Professor William Stewart and Dr Donald Lyall and will consist of a multidisciplinary collaboration of researchers and experts in traumatic brain injury, epidemiology, and public health.
SEPTEMBER 2022
PROF WILLIE STEWART PLAYS GOALIE AT CHARITY SOCCER GAME
On Sunday 25th September, the charity Head for Change organized a soccer match devoid of heading the ball – aiming to spread awareness of the risks associated with the practice and to demonstrate that soccer without heading can work!
Prior to the match (and donning his very own kit), Prof Willie Stewart gave a talk on the link between heading the ball and dementia later in life. Jeremy Wilson, in his article on the event, said:
“Anyone doubting that this is an urgently needed debate should simply listen to the pre-match talk provided by Prof Willie Stewart, the Glasgow neuropathologist who proved [soccer]’s dementia link. He described his work examining the brains of deceased former [soccer players], who are five times more likely to die of Alzheimer’s disease and are often also suffering with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a type of dementia only associated with head impacts”
Jeremy Wilson – Read the full article here: Families of 1966 World Cup heroes want heading ban for young players
Shortly after the talk, Willie joined the eager players as goalie and showed all the enthusiasm we’ve come to know him for – GO WILLIE!
SEPTEMBER 2022
NEW PAPER PUBLISHED!
“Concussion leads to widespread axonal sodium channel loss and disruption of the node of Ranvier”
The latest from CONNECT-TBI was published in Acta Neuropathologica on September 15th. Primary author Dr Hailong Song dedicated a lot of time to this and we offer our sincerest congratulations to him, and to everyone who worked on it.
Read the full paper here!
Song, H., McEwan, P.P., Ameen-Ali, K.E. et al. Concussion leads to widespread axonal sodium channel loss and disruption of the node of Ranvier. Acta Neuropathol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-022-02498-1
AUGUST 2022
Dr C. Dirk Keene talks Alzheimer’s on NPR
Our collaborator, Dr Dirk Keene, and his team featured on NPR today (1st Aug) in a piece about the shifting focus in Alzheimer’s research. Dr Keene is quoted talking about current methods – the transcript reads:
“What we’re trying to do with this study is to look at cell vulnerability early on in the disease, before [people] have plaques and tangles, before they have cognitive impairment,” says Dr. C. Dirk Keene, a neuropathologist at the University of Washington.
To create the atlas, Keene and a team of researchers analyzed more than a million cells from 84 brains donated by people who’d signed up for Alzheimer’s research projects run by the University of Washington and Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute.
The brains came from donors “at all different stages of disease” Keenes says, “so we can pinpoint what’s happening from the earliest levels all the way through to people with advanced disease.”
LISTEN TO/READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference is running from Jul 31st – Aug 4th in San Diego.
JUNE 2022
CONNECT-TBI General Assembly
While several of us converged at the Annual Symposium of the National Neurotrauma Society (NNS) 2022 in Atlanta, we took the opportunity to hold a General Assembly of the CONNECT-TBI team, discussion a year in review as well as upcoming projects! It’s been a long time since we were able to meet face-to-face, and these discussions truly are invaluable to our preparations. Here’s to planning the next year of ground-breaking research!
We were also thrilled to welcome Dr Sally Tucker, Trustee of Head for Change, speaking about the founding and ongoing work of the charity, as well as telling us some of her father’s experiences as a former professional soccer player now dealing with early-onset dementia. We are so grateful to her for sharing her family’s story.
