My first data-driven PhD publication is out! @NAN_Wiley We examined human PM brains and found no difference in the amount of pre-synaptic material inside microglia between control and schizophrenia brains. Wee thread below https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nan.12660

Things about this work that make me happy:

1)This project was in collaboration with Delphine Boche who was a wonderful collaborator. Working with people that support and believe in you makes all the difference in the world! 100% would recommend to a friend!

2) Run my first R analysis on my own! (but really with a lot of help from the incomparable @annajstevenson )

3) This was a spin-off project from my work on AD, so took me by surprise to see it out first! This was possible only bc @TSpiresJones is a fantastic supervisor and forms networks by proudly sharing her trainees achievements.

4) It felt great to have a journal be interested in an observational study of the human brain and not “force” years of work to prove a point. None of the observations reached statistical significance, and that in itself can be significant!

5) Having said that, many questions arise from this study: Are microglia pruning synapses differently closer to disease onset (or not)? Does medication affect mg pruning? Do other symptoms in SZ like psychosis or depression affect mg and synapse pruning?