Dr. Sana Suri
Alzheimer’s Society Research Fellow University of Oxford
PhD in Neuroscience University of Oxford
As an undergraduate, Dr. Sana Suri held a rat brain for the first time and was mesmerized by the magical sound of its neurons firing. She has never looked back. After graduating from the National University of Singapore, Sana followed her newfound passion to the University of Oxford for a master’s and PhD in neuroscience. In the years since, that passion has taken many forms: her research on risk and resilience for dementia, her pen as a science communicator, her voice informing policy in Parliament, and her advocacy for diversity and inclusion in science. Now running an independent group at Oxford while simultaneously finishing her postdoctoral work, Sana has become an expert at juggling many roles at once – in fact, the balancing act has itself become a motivating drive. Whether she is managing students, analyzing data, meeting with research participants, or doing outreach, each day brings a new challenge and the adrenaline from meeting that obstacle head-on.
After receiving her master’s degree, Sana knew that she wanted to do a PhD and landed a position in her dream lab, the lab of Professor Clare Mackay at Oxford. As a doctoral student, Sana examined cerebrovascular reactivity, the body’s ability to increase blood flow to the brain in response to a physiological stressor. She discovered that young adults with higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) had decreased cerebrovascular reactivity. This finding adds an important piece to mounting evidence for a strong link between cardiovascular health and brain health. After her doctoral studies, Sana moved a few steps down the hall and into the lab of Professor Klaus Ebmeier. While her thesis work focused on genetic risk factors for AD, she is now examining how cerebrovascular reactivity changes with age and how it is affected by lifestyle risk factors for AD, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The overarching goal of her research is to pinpoint when and how to intervene with lifestyle alterations or drugs to mitigate risk for developing dementia.
While she is still generating and analyzing her own neuroimaging data as she finishes her postdoc, Sana also received a prestigious grant from the Alzheimer’s Society. This funding has served as a springboard for her to establish an independent group at Oxford: the Heart and Brain Group. As a new PI, Sana’s mentorship strategy is centered around making sure that her students remain freshly motivated – she insists that they take weekends off and vacations when needed. Even though Sana is juggling an unbelievable set of responsibilities as both postdoc and PI, she tries to lead by example. She is militant about preserving her weekends for family time and tries not to take her laptop home during the week. Admitting that sometimes it’s more difficult to not work than to work, Sana reminds herself of something that both her mother and graduate advisor often tell her: your job is what you do, not who you are. Even though this compartmentalization does not always come easily, Sana constantly strives to detach herself from the failures and rejections inherent in an academic career. And she always makes sure to celebrate the small victories along the way.
Although Sana has had an incredibly successful career thus far, there were moments early on in graduate school in which she reconsidered the academic path. Watching those ahead of her struggle with grant rejections, and personally battling a nagging sense of self-doubt, Sana started to seek another outlet for her passion for neuroscience: science communication. She started a neuroscience blog with a group of friends and had some of her blog posts picked up by The Conversation, a journal that publishes articles written by academics. For a brief time, Sana thought she might have found a new career in science writing, but eventually she realized that she was still deeply passionate about continuing to do research. She has now found a way to marry the two: she chairs the Patient and Public Involvement Strategy for the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN). In this role, she regularly communicates research findings to members of the public and those affected by dementia, creating a connection between her research goals and the community she hopes to help. In addition to forging relationships with the public, Sana has become involved in the policy side of science communication. She has spoken before Parliament on more than one occasion, most recently as an expert witness for a House of Lords inquiry on healthy aging policies. Sana strongly believes that the intersection between science and policy is a vital one – effective policies must be well-informed by science.
Another cause close to Sana’s heart is promoting women and people of color in science. When she arrived at Oxford, Sana was often the only woman of color at any meeting or on any committee. Believing that representation and visibility are crucial for encouraging others to pursue academic careers, Sana has thrown herself into trying to make changes at the institutional level. She is an active member of her department’s Athena SWAN – Scientific Women’s Academic Network – and the WIN’s committee for equality, diversity and inclusion.
As she balances her roles as postdoc, PI, and communicator, Sana has not lost her big-picture vision for the future of her research. Her dream is to one day run a large, multimodal clinical trial to test the effects of lifestyle interventions on the development of dementia. She also has a broader dream that academia accelerates its efforts to address its gender and racial disparities. If Sana’s career momentum thus far is any indication of her future, she will undoubtedly continue to make a significant impact in the realms of research, policy, and diversity.
Check out Cristiana’s full interview with Sana on February 13th, 2020 below or wherever you listen to your podcasts!
