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Dr Holly Spence

Dr Holly Spence
Dr Holly Spence
Dr Holly Spence

Research Fellow

About
Email Address
holly.spence1@abdn.ac.uk
Office Address
3.20 Institute of Medical Sciences
Foresterhill Campus
Ashgrove Road West
AB25 2ZD

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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 Sciences 
    2023 - University of Aberdeen 

    "Brain iron and age-related cognitive decline"

  • Msci Biomedicine 
    2019 - Lancaster University 

Latest Publications

View My Publications

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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  • Brain Iron as a Surrogate Biomarker of Pathological TDP-43 Identifies Brain Region-Specific Signatures in Ageing, Alzheimer’s Disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

    Waldron, F., Spence, H., Taso, O. S., Read, F., Sinha, I. R., Irwin, K. E., Wong, P. C., Ling, J. P., Gregory, J.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers

  • Skin TDP-43 pathology as a candidate biomarker for predicting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis decades prior to motor symptom onset

    Waldron, F., Langerova, T., Rahmanova, A., Read, F., Spence, H., Roberts, K., MacLeod, A., Pattle, S. B., Hanna, K., Gregory, J.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers

  • Large-scale RNA-Seq mining reveals ciclopirox olamine induces TDP-43 cryptic exons

    Sinha, I. R., Sandal, P. S., Spence, H., Burns, G. D., Mallika, A. P., Abbasinejad, F., Irwin, K. E., Cruz, A. L. F., Wang, V., Marx, S. R., Rodríguez, J. L., Langmead, B., Gregory, J. M., Wong, P. C., Ling, J. P.
    Nature Communications, vol. 16, 6878
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Improving ALS detection and cognitive impairment stratification with attention-enhanced deep learning models

    Xia, Y., Gregory, J. M., Waldron, F. M., Spence, H., Vallejo, M.
    Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 7045
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Integrating Transfer Learning and Attention Mechanisms for Accurate ALS Diagnosis and Cognitive Impairment Detection

    Xia, Y., Gregory, J. M., Waldron, F. M., Spence, H., Vallejo, M.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers

  • Associations between sex, systemic iron and inflammatory status and subcortical brain iron

    Spence, H., Mengoa-Fleming, S., Sneddon, A., McNeil, C., Waiter, G.
    European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 60, no. 5
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Amygdala TDP-43 pathology is associated with behavioural dysfunction and ferritin accumulation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

    Rifai, O. M., Waldron, F., O'Shaughnessy, J., Read, F., Gilodi, M., Pastore, A., Tartaglia, G. G., Zacco, E., Spence, H., Gregory, J.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers

  • RNA aptamer reveals nuclear TDP-43 pathology is an early aggregation event that coincides with STMN-2 cryptic splicing and precedes clinical manifestation in ALS

    Spence, H., Waldron, F., Saleeb, R. S., Brown, A., Rifai, O. M., Gilodi, M., Read, F., Nellany, K., Milne, G., Wilkinson, D., O'shaughnessy, J., Pastore, A., Fratta, P., Shneider, N., Tartaglia, G. G., Zacco, E., Horrocks, M. H., Gregory, J.
    Acta Neuropathologica, vol. 147, 50
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • SOP 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

    Waldron, F. M., Gregory, J., Spence, H.
    protocols.io.
    Other Contributions: Other Contributions

  • RNA aptamer reveals nuclear TDP-43 pathology is an early aggregation event that coincides withSTMN-2cryptic splicing and precedes clinical manifestation in ALS

    Spence, H., Waldron, F. M., Saleeb, R. S., Brown, A., Rifai, O. M., Gilodi, M., Read, F., Roberts, K., Milne, G., Wilkinson, D., O’Shaughnessy, J., Pastore, A., Fratta, P., Shneider, N., Tartaglia, G. G., Zacco, E., Horrocks, M. H., Gregory, J. M.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers
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