Natalie Jones
Research Assistant
- jonesn35@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2251 0276
- 1.017, Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ
Overview
I am currently a Research Assistant at CUBRIC working on a Psychopharmacology Clinical Trial with Professor Neil Harrison and Professor Krish Singh. My focus is on pharmacodynamics, neuroimaging (MRI and MEG), and neurological disease including neuroinflammation, connectivity, and the effects of hormones in the brain.
I am also working on a secondary clinical study aiming to image changes in immune cells in the brain using diffusion MRI.
Biography
After completing my BSc Psychology in 2011, I built up my experience, skills, and understanding through working with Flying Start, the Biomedical science laboratory in UHW, and fundraising for the MS Society and Macmillan Cancer Support - raising over £13,000. My main interest has always been around neuroscience, medical interventions, neuroimmunology and psychopharmacology. I returned to Cardiff University in 2019 to complete the MSc Neuroimaging: Methods and Applications, before publishing a separate research project with Raluca Petrican and Alex Fornito. Following this, I started my role as a Research Assistant in CUBRIC under Neil Harrison.
Publications
2022
- Petrican, R., Fornito, A. and Jones, N. 2022. Psychological resilience and neurodegenerative risk: a connectomics-transcriptomics investigation in healthy adolescent and middle-aged females. NeuroImage 255, article number: 119209. (10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119209)
My main research interests involve Psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, and women's health. I am currently working on a Clinical Trail using MEG (task and resting state) as well as fMRI (resting state and structural). I am passionate about uncovering underlying physiological adaptations associated with disease or declining cognitive function, as well as optimising imaging methodology, and working towards better understanding, treatment options and potential preventative measures. As an aside, I am also interested in how disorders of the female reproductive system influence hormones, inflammation, cognitive functioning and subsequent disorder.