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Profile – Akin Nihat

Name: [1]

Akin Nihat

Job Title:

Clinical Research Fellow

Place of work / study:

MRC Prion Unit at UCL, Institute of Prion Diseases

Area of Research:

Prion disease/rapidly-progressive dementia

Tell us a little about yourself:

I’m a clinical research fellow and MRC-funded PhD student interested in the clinical and molecular aspects of prion disease. I split my time between reviewing patients with prion disease throughout the UK and undertaking clinical research, working in the lab to develop better cell models of human prion disease, and seeing general neurology patients in clinic.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself:

I’m a triplet, so there are always two better versions of me wandering around.

Why did you choose to work in dementia?

I have been interested in cognition and neuroscience for as long as I can remember, even before I decided to pursue a career in medicine. During my early jobs as a junior doctor, I spent a lot of time on general medical wards and saw a huge population of patients with dementia or cognitive impairment with little or no recourse to treatment; I became really interested in what we don’t know about these conditions, and particularly the disconnect between some of the excellent research taking place and the almost non-existent trickle down into clinical practice.

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