Research Fellow
- About
-
- Email Address
- holly.spence1@abdn.ac.uk
- Office Address
- School/Department
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
Biography
I studied Biomedicine at Lancaster University before completing my PhD in Medical Sciences at University of Aberdeen. Here, I explored the role of brain iron in age-related cognitive decline and the relationships between brain iron and blood markers for iron and inflammation. In March 2023, I joined the Gregory Lab as a post-doctoral research fellow.
My current research focuses on the role of heavy metal dysregulation and oxidative stress in the physical biology of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. I utilise brain imaging technologies, immunohistochemistry and metabolomics analyses, with the aim of improving precision medicine strategies for the oxidative stress endophenotype of ALS.
I am currently not advertising for PhD positions but if you are interested applying for a PhD in this area of research, I welcome all informal inquiries.
Have a look at our lab website for up to date news, information about our other group members, and a description of our ongoing projects:
https://gregorylaboratory.com/
Qualifications
- PhD Medical Sciences2023 - University of Aberdeen
"Brain iron and age-related cognitive decline"
- Msci Biomedicine2019 - Lancaster University
Latest Publications
Improving ALS detection and cognitive impairment stratification with attention-enhanced deep learning models
Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 7045Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-90881-9
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Integrating Transfer Learning and Attention Mechanisms for Accurate ALS Diagnosis and Cognitive Impairment Detection
Working Papers: Discussion Papers- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.22.24313406
Associations between sex, systemic iron and inflammatory status and subcortical brain iron
European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 60, no. 5Contributions to Journals: ArticlesRNA aptamer reveals nuclear TDP-43 pathology is an early aggregation event that coincides with STMN-2 cryptic splicing and precedes clinical manifestation in ALS
Acta Neuropathologica, vol. 147, 50Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSOP and tick-sheet for using TDP-43 RNA aptamer (TDP-43APT) to detect pathological TDP-43 in FFPE-preserved human tissue, as described in Spence and Waldron et al., 2024 (Acta Neuropathologica) v1
protocols.io.Other Contributions: Other Contributions- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.eq2lyjo4mlx9/v1
Prizes and Awards
September 2024 - Stefania Spanò Young Investigator Lecture Award
- Research
-
Research Overview
My current research focuses on the role of heavy metal dysregulation and oxidative stress in the physical biology of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. I utilise brain imaging technologies, immunohistochemistry and metabolomics analyses, with the aim of improving precision medicine strategies for the oxidative stress endophenotype of ALS.
Research Specialisms
- Biomedical Sciences
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Machine Learning
- Medical Sciences
- Neuroscience
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a pathologically heterogeneous disorder which is thought to be underpinned by several molecular phenotypes with differing prognosis. Therefore, lack of prior stratification for trials may limit conclusions about underlying pathobiology and therapeutic strategies. Instead, I focus on the oxidative stress predominant endophenotype of ALS (ox-ALS) which is thought to account for approximately 60% of sporadic ALS cases. Leveraging my background in redox biology, I assess the biophysical and biochemical consequences of oxidative stress related TDP-43 pathology with the aim of identifying imaging and fluid biomarkers of ox-ALS with a paired therapeutic strategy.
Collaborations
Dr Jonathan Ling (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine)
Dr Marta Vallejo (Herriot-Watt University)
Dr. James Longden (e-therapeutics PLC, Edinburgh)
- Publications
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Page 1 of 1 Results 1 to 9 of 9
Improving ALS detection and cognitive impairment stratification with attention-enhanced deep learning models
Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 7045Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-90881-9
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Integrating Transfer Learning and Attention Mechanisms for Accurate ALS Diagnosis and Cognitive Impairment Detection
Working Papers: Discussion Papers- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.22.24313406
Associations between sex, systemic iron and inflammatory status and subcortical brain iron
European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 60, no. 5Contributions to Journals: ArticlesRNA aptamer reveals nuclear TDP-43 pathology is an early aggregation event that coincides with STMN-2 cryptic splicing and precedes clinical manifestation in ALS
Acta Neuropathologica, vol. 147, 50Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSOP and tick-sheet for using TDP-43 RNA aptamer (TDP-43APT) to detect pathological TDP-43 in FFPE-preserved human tissue, as described in Spence and Waldron et al., 2024 (Acta Neuropathologica) v1
protocols.io.Other Contributions: Other Contributions- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.eq2lyjo4mlx9/v1
RNA aptamer reveals nuclear TDP-43 pathology is an early aggregation event that coincides withSTMN-2cryptic splicing and precedes clinical manifestation in ALS
Working Papers: Preprint Papers- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.10.24.563701
Associations between sex, systemic iron and inflammatory status and subcortical brain iron
Working Papers: Preprint Papers- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.08.22.554249
Cognition and brain iron deposition in whole grey matter regions and hippocampal subfields
European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 6039-6054Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe impact of brain iron accumulation on cognition: A systematic review
PloS ONE, vol. 15, no. 10, pp. e0240697Contributions to Journals: Articles