Name:
Lluís Camprubí Ferrer
Job Title:
PhD Student
Place of work / study:
Lund University, Sweden
Area of Research:
Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s
How is your research funded:
By both public grants and private foundations
Tell us a little about yourself:
I’m from Barcelona, but I’m doing my PhD studies in Lund University, in Sweden. I love practicing sports such as biking, football and skiing and I have a hard time saying “no” to any activity that involves music and food. I try to give 100% in both social life and work life: “party hard, work hard”, which can be exhausting but always rewarding!
Tell us a fun fact about yourself:
I could have done 3 PhDs with the amount of time I have spent watching Youtube videos about stuff that isn’t relevant at all for my life.
Why did you choose to work in dementia research?
From a young age my parents complained that I was asking too many questions, so I decided to start looking for answers by myself, and that’s why I ended trying to understand the most difficult part of our bodies: the brain. Being in contact with relatives suffering from dementia really struck me as a kid, and it has always made me sad seeing how a person’s mind can slowly deteriorate. So I decided I had to know more about these conditions, and I moved to Sweden to learn and investigate dementia. I currently study the involvement of one cell type (called microglia) in the development of dementia. I have to sat I love working on a field where everyday I learn something new and I am always stimulated to keep going, I see light at the end of the tunnel for patients and caretakers!
What single piece of advice would you give to an early career researcher?
Try to make ammends with the fact that the workload is “infinite”, and that there are always more things you can do and experiments you can add. The key is to know when to close the stories once you’ve reached the answer for your hypothesis.
What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
The biography of Santiago Ramon y Cajal. I mean, the absolute GOAT of neuroscience. Incredible how he started from nothing and slowly (just by observation and trial and error) built the basis for our current understanding of the foundations of the nervous system.
Favourite ways to unplug and unwind?
It has to be sports. Any kind counts! I try to mix a bit of “solitary” sports such as running or biking with team sports like football!
Favourite film of all time?
I Origins.