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Dr Claire Potter
Name:
Dr Claire Potter
Job Title:
Irish Clinical Academic Training (ICAT) Fellow
Place of work / study:
Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
Area of Research:
Cognitive Ageing, Social science, Bioinformatics, Biomarkers
How is your research funded:
Wellcome Trust/ Health Research Board Irish Clinical Academic Training (ICAT) Programme
Tell us a little about yourself:
I am a Specialty Trainee in General Adult and Old Age Psychiatry and Wellcome Trust-Health Research Board Irish Clinical Academic Training (ICAT) Fellow in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).
Currently a final year PhD student in the Centre for Public Health QUB, my research involves studying life course impact of stress and negative psychological experiences on biological and cognitive ageing across ageing cohorts in Ireland, The Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NICOLA) study (QUB) and The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) study (TCD). I am also an advocate for healthy ageing and mental wellbeing, and keen to engage with members of the public about raising awareness on the risk factors for later life dementia, healthy brain ageing and responding to stressful experiences.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself:
I am a twin
Why did you choose to work in dementia research?
I have always enjoyed working with large multidisciplinary teams and the holistic approach we take when caring for people living with dementia. Despite incredible challenges it is inspiring how people approach this diagnosis and continue to live full and rewarding lives. I am really keen to explore the effects of psychological stress on later life dementia risk with my research. I think it is a really exciting time to work in the field of dementia and biomarker research as the landscape will drastically change throughout our career as we move towards earlier detection and hopefully treatments.
What single piece of advice would you give to an early career researcher?
Find a great mentor to support and champion you through the rewards and some of the challenges of an academic career.
What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Favourite ways to unplug and unwind?
Reading fiction books
Favourite film of all time?
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Dementia Researcher
