Profile

Profile – Dr Nikou Damestani, Sanofi

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Print This Post

12/04/2024

add comment

Dr Nikou Damestani

Name:

Dr Nikou Damestani

Job Title:

Former post-doc at Massachusetts General Hospital / Data Expansion Lead

Place of work / study:

Sanofi

Area of Research:

Previously investigated brain blood flow and its connection to aging

How is your research funded:

Previously funded by the American Heart Association and NIH

Tell us a little about yourself:

I’m a physicist by training who specialised in neuroimaging at doctoral level, with a big focus of my research being accessibility of studies. Alongside my work, I’ve been a huge equity advocate across multiple dimensions of diversity after both experiencing and seeing so many barriers in the academic space. I co-founded the ISMRM inclusion working group, worked as a diversity and inclusion representative, and led numerous initiatives targeting trainee empowerment and equitable scientific practice.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself:

I love line dancing! I got really into it while living in Boston for my post doc.

Why did you choose to work in dementia research?

I started working in the aging space because I love working on more functional imaging techniques (i.e. understanding physiology) that targeted questions that helped the masses. It seemed really obvious to me that there was a big gap between structural and physiological research, and I had the privilege of working with a team that had collected multi-modal data across a huge population that included both structure and physiology.

What single piece of advice would you give to an early career researcher?

Surround yourself with a support system that can get you through the critiques, the rejections, and the generally negative experiences. The incidences will get fewer and farther between, but unfortunately they do still happen and it’s important to know who you can turn to.