Dr Elisa de Paula França Resende
Name:
Dr Elisa França Resende
Job title:
Neurologist
Place of work / study:
Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Area of Research:
Cognitive reserve and dementia in people with low education.
How is your work funded?
Alzheimer´s Association, World Federation of Neurology and National Institute of Health.
Tell us a little about yourself:
I am a neurologist from Brazil who works with patients with dementia and low levels of education. My goal is to understand whether it is possible to improve cognitive reserve [1] later in life, to reduce the burden of dementia in countries like Brazil, where the level of education is low amongst older adults.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself:
I love dancing Zumba.
Why did you choose to work in dementia?
I started seeing patients with dementia when I was a graduate student working with my mentor, prof Paulo Caramelli. At that time, my grandmother developed dementia symptoms, and I wanted to understand more her disease. Since then, I have been working in the dementia field.
What single piece of advice would you give to an early career researcher?
Do not give up.
What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
The Nature Invention, by Andrea Wolf [2]. Would definitely recommend it, mainly if you lime nature, biology and research.