Dr Silvia Del Din
Name:
Dr Silvia Del Din
Job title:
Senior Research Associate & Innovation, Methodology and Application (IMA) theme Early Career Researcher representative
Place of work / study:
Newcastle University, Translational and Clinical Research Institute
Area of Research:
Digital health / wearable technology for mobility assessment
How is your work funded?
My work is funded via various funding streams including: Mobilise-D and IDEA-FAST projects which are both receiving funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) 2 Joint Undertaking. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.
Tell us a little about yourself:
I am a bio-engineer by background, I have been working now for almost eight years at Newcastle University in the Brain and Movement Research Group [1]. My main research focuses on quantifying digital mobility outcomes (e.g. walking and balance) by using wearable technology [2]. I work with data collected in controlled (e.g. laboratory) and real-world (“at-home”) environments, in ageing populations and neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Parkinson’s disease, dementia, etc.). In my free-time I like running and I love hiking!
Tell us a fun fact about yourself:
At first, when I meet new people, a lot of time they think I am Scandinavian because of my fair skin and blonde hair… but I am a proud Italian!
Why did you choose to work in dementia?
Because I think the potential to use wearable technology as a pre-screening/ diagnostic and even prognostic tool would be very beneficial in the “dementia space”. Hopefully we will be able to help people who may be developing dementia by detecting it early and so by putting in place measures (e.g. treatments, interventions, etc.) which could slow down (and in the future maybe actually stop!) the “negative” effects dementia has on people.
Can we find you on Twitter?
Follow @sil_bam [3]