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Dr Soyon Hong (Group Leader, UK Dementia Research Institute at 果冻影院) is a specialist in the relationship between microglia and synapses. Her lab explores these interactions in a disease context.
Dr Soyon Hong remembers when she first came across microglia cells as an undergraduate student.听听
鈥淚 fell in love with them,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淭hey were my first love, actually.鈥澨�
It is a love affair that has never subsided. Today is at the forefront of dementia research, with a primary focus on the microglia cell.听听
鈥淢icroglia are the immune cells of the brain. They are like your first responders. They detect and respond, restoring homeostasis.鈥澨�
But in times of degeneration, this protective function can break down, and the 鈥榝irst responders鈥� can actually engulf, or 鈥榚at鈥�, surrounding synapses. It is a process that is evident in Alzheimer鈥檚, the most common form of dementia. The disease affects one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in six people over the age of 80.听听
鈥淢y team are finding ways to target malfunctioning microglia, which may help slow down the progression of Alzheimer鈥檚,鈥� Soyon says. 鈥淲hat are some of the regulators and what are some of the triggers that mediate this process?鈥澨�
She points out however that in order to understand this breakdown, we must also investigate healthy microglia functioning as well.听听
鈥淭heir function is crucial not only in times of damage, but now we鈥檙e beginning to understand that microglia are also critical in normal brain development as well.鈥澨�
鈥淚f we want to understand how brains degenerate, we have to know how brains function.鈥澨�
Earlier this year, Soyon was announced as the recipient of the Alzheimer鈥檚 Research UK (ARUK) David Hague award for Early Career Investigator of the Year.听
鈥淩eceiving this award is an honour and is so encouraging for me and my team who are just starting their careers in dementia research,鈥� she says.听
Working to find a cure for Alzheimer鈥檚 is also important on a profoundly personal level. 听
Soyon's father, the person who inspired her to pursue a career in science, passed away due to Alzheimer鈥檚 disease-related complications just one week before she moved to the UK to start her lab. 听
Her mother also endured severe chronic illness for much of her life, often experiencing pain without explanation or prescribed treatment pathways. It motivated Soyon to seek answers. 听
鈥淚 realised there鈥檚 so much unknown about our bodies. In my mind, the way to help someone like my mum was through science.鈥澨�
Soyon also credits two books that profoundly shaped her career choice. One is The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by neurologist Oliver Sacks听describing some of the case histories of his patients.
鈥淭hat really blew my hat off,鈥� she laughs. 鈥淚t made me really fall in love with neuroscience.鈥� 听
The other is Tuesdays With Morrie, a memoir by Mitch Albom, profiling his mentor who is dying from ALS. While Soyon admits it made her bawl her eyes out, it also inspired her to persist through years of study and training.听
Soyon鈥檚 lab is made up of postdoctoral, graduate, PhD and master鈥檚 students, as well as lab technicians and research staff. And while the length of time they鈥檙e at the lab may vary, one ritual stays the same. 听
鈥淥ne of the things we always do when we recruit new people to the lab, is everyone meets the candidate, and the candidate meets everybody,鈥� Soyon says. 鈥淔or me that鈥檚 really important.鈥� 听
"It鈥檚 not only about being nice. Nowadays, the way that biomedical research is being done, it requires collaboration. And that collaboration can be between labs, between institutions, but most of the time it鈥檚 a concerted team effort within a lab.鈥澨�
Just as different cell types work together to enable healthy brain function, the different members of Soyon鈥檚 lab co-exist and support each other to thrive.听
鈥淓verybody in my lab has their own project, their own specific question that they鈥檙e addressing. It鈥檚 important because it empowers them to have ownership. However what is also important is everyone helping each other out.鈥澨�
鈥淚 want our efforts to be used to change people鈥檚 lives.鈥澨�
For Soyon and her lab, that 鈥榗hange鈥� is developing a cure, or disease-modifying therapy, for neurodegenerative diseases.听
鈥淲e hope the discoveries we make in the lab will make a fundamental difference in our understanding of how the brain works. Ultimately, we want to find new drug targets that could be new life-changing treatments for people with dementia.鈥澨�
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