Björn Vahsen

I studied medicine at the Georg-August-University Göttingen, including clinical rotations at King’s College London and the University of Zurich.

In parallel, I obtained a research MD (summa cum laude and prize for the best thesis of the year) studying the role of the autophagy-initiating kinase ULK1 in axonal degeneration and regeneration in cellular models (supervised by Prof Paul Lingor). I then completed the MSc in Neuroscience and a DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences at the Oxford Motor Neuron Disease Centre (under the supervision of Prof Kevin Talbot and Prof Martin Turner). During my DPhil, I was a Clarendon Scholar, Lamb & Flag Scholar and North Senior Scholar at St John’s College, and an NIHR Academy Member. I am now a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Talbot Lab and Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College.

I am studying the role of microglia in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using induced pluripotent stem cell models. My project is performed in collaboration with Dr Sally Cowley at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association.