The VasCog Early Career Investigators (VasCog ECI) is a network of researchers who study any aspect of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). Early career investigators include MD students, PhD students, postdocs, and assistant professors. Studying any aspect of VCI means we invite translational research in this area – basic, pre-clinical, clinical, and global public health. We believe that the key to high quality research lies in solid collaborations built over time. Since early career investigators are the future of the VCI research field, we create this network early in our careers. To achieve this, we invite you to take part. The VasCog ECI will have an independent session and social event at the VasCog biannual meeting. In addition, you can connect with us through our LinkedIn page, where the VasCog ECI will post updates about interesting and innovative conferences, e-courses, workshops, papers, platforms, and more!
The current VasCog ECI representatives are Dr. Audrey low and Gurpreet Hansra. Starting in the spring of 2022, we launched ECI VasCog meetings twice per year! These meetings focus on topics in the VCI research field and provide ECI researchers with an (extra) opportunity to present and discuss their work with peers. We will advertise the topics for the ECI VasCog meetings on this website, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
If you have any suggestions for future topics, or other activities that can help you in your early careers, please feel free to email us (vascogeci@gmail.com)! Stay tuned!
Audrey Low
Research Fellow & Young Investigators Representative
Audrey is a Race Against Dementia Fellow jointly at the University of Cambridge and the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota USA). She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2022, funded by the Lee Kuan Yew Fitzwilliam PhD Scholarship. Audrey was the recipient of the 2023 ‘Rising Star Award’ from the Alzheimer’s Society (UK) and was awarded the NUS Development Grant from the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she holds the position of Young NUS Fellow. Her research interest lies in understanding the role of cerebrovascular dysfunction in dementia using multimodal neuroimaging techniques, fluid biomarkers, and clinical data in humans. In particular, her work focuses on identifying early biomarkers, and factors involved in risk and resilience towards dementia. Most recently, her research looks at the associations and interplay between cerebral small vessel disease, inflammation, and blood brain barrier permeability, and specifically the role of perivascular spaces. A strong advocate for dementia prevention, Audrey also actively organises and participates in public engagement events to improve the public’s understanding of dementia and fundraises for dementia research through pottery and half-marathons. Academic profile: https://audreylwn.github.io/
PHD Student & Young Investigators Representative
Gurpreet is currently a PhD candidate and Research Assistant with the Centre for Health Brain Ageing in the department of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales under the supervision of Scientia Professor Perminder Sachdev. Her work involves the identification of molecular biomarkers in the blood for the detection and prognosis of vascular contributions to dementia. In addition to research, Gurpreet is involved in conducting laboratory classes in Biomolecular Sciences to university students.
Gurpreet holds a MPhil in Medicine from the University of Sydney, where she utilised microscopy and 3D imaging to investigate the link between cerebrovascular disorders (microvascular dysfunction) and Alzheimer’s disease in human brain tissue.
Apart from her academic endeavours, Gurpreet holds active positions in various capacities. She serves as the Early Career Investigator Representative for VasCog, oversees communications for VasCog journal CCCB and is the Vice President (Equity) for the Postgraduate Student Council at the University of New South Wales.