DrCarola Radulescu

I am an Early Career Investigator supported by the Edmond J and Lily Safra Foundation Fellowship. My work focuses on understanding how ageing modifies the brain’s response to environmental challenges and pathological burden. Specifically, I investigate emerging features of dysregulation and resilience in neuronal and glial function during ageing, as well as in the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. To address these questions, I employ advanced in vivo and ex vivo approaches, including state-of-the-art imaging and electrophysiology in cutting-edge preclinical models, alongside collaborative studies using spatial transcriptomics and proteomics techniques.

Prior to this fellowship, I held a postdoctoral Research Associate position in the group of Samuel J. Barnes at the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI) at Imperial College London, where I investigated neuronal activity regulation mechanisms during ageing and early-stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. I undertook my PhD research under the ARAP scholarship, awarded by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR, Singapore) and the University of Sheffield (UK), investigating activity regulation in cortico–basal ganglia microcircuits and the impact of environmental and microbiota manipulation, with a translational focus on Huntington’s disease. This trajectory was shaped by my MSc in Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, where I first developed a strong interest in age-related neurodegenerative conditions and movement disorders through work exploring the role of the basal ganglia in action discovery and movement control.

Awards

• Interstellar Initiative Award, 2025, on the Early Career Investigators Programme  (AMED Japan & NYAS US)
• Edmond J and Lily Safra Fellowship Award, 2024
• UK DRI Collaborative spatial transcriptomics award, 2021 (co-Pi Dr Michael Morten), to determine the gene expression profile of dysfunctional neurons in age-related pathology
• UK DRI Pilot Study Awards, 2019 (co-Pi Dr Amy Smith), to investigate integrated optogenetic-transcriptomic signatures of destabilised neuronal activity during early Alzheimer’s disease pathology

My group:

Leire Garrido Perez, PhD student, Department of Brain Sciences 

Thea Iulia Olteanu, BSc Biochemistry, Department of Life Sciences, 'Ce Poți Face' Foundation Scholarship Award (supporting women in STEM)

Past students:

Trisha Bagri, BSc Medical Biosciences, Department of Medical Biosciences

Darcy Gabriel, UROP student, Royal Microscopy Society (RMS) Studentship Award

Kai Kanematsu, BSc Pathway: Neuroscience and Mental Health

Kseniia Kiseleva, UROP student, Imperial College London Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme Bursary

Anna Krskova, MRes Experimental Neuroscience

Shu Liu, MRes Experimental Neuroscience, Department of Brain Sciences

Gloria Wong, MSc Translational Neuroscience

Esther Wu, MSc Translational Neuroscience