Securing this Career Development Award from the Wellcome Trust is a pivotal moment in my scientific career to date. It will provide me with long-term security and support for cutting-edge resources to drive forward my research vision which is focused on uncovering the molecular mechanisms that underlie the long-known sex differences in the maintenance of hearing.”
Dr Lisa Nolan
03 August 2022
Dr Lisa Nolan Receives £3.2 million Wellcome Trust Career Development Award
This award recognises her potential to be an international research leader and funds her work on age-related/adult-onset hearing loss (ARHL).
Dr Lisa Nolan, Research Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), has received the Wellcome Trust Career Development Award worth £3.2 million to fund 8 years of research into age-related/adult-onset hearing loss (ARHL).
The award recognises her potential to be an international research leader, building on her current work on ARHL as the recipient of the 2019 King’s Prize Research Fellowship. Her research interest in the auditory field stems from her own experience of hearing loss.
ARHL is a complex neurodegenerative disease. It is a global health concern affecting millions of adults worldwide. It has long been known that sex impacts the maintenance of hearing over the life course. ARHL is more common in men compared to women, with the incidence in women increasing post-menopause.
Dr Nolan's research will determine if sex-specific molecular pathways can be identified that are suitable as potential drug targets in ARHL. Her group will use an interdisciplinary approach integrating electrophysiological, imaging and single-cell transcriptomic data from mouse models with knowledge gained from genetic studies in humans.
There is increasing evidence that ARHL is also associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline, dementia and depression. Based in the Wolfson Centre of Age-Related Diseases, Dr Nolan’s group will take advantage of its strategic location within the School of Neuroscience to further explore this association with others in the school.
I am beyond delighted to be building my lab at King’s and I very much look forward to fostering new collaborations with other groups that are also interested in how biological sex impacts the molecular underpinnings of complex neurodegenerative disease”
Dr Lisa Nolan
The Wellcome Trust Career Development Award recognises mid-career researchers from any discipline with the potential to be international research leaders. The funding supports researchers to develop their research capabilities, drive innovative programmes of work and deliver significant shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and wellbeing.
For more information, please contact Annora Thoeng (School of Neuroscience Senior Communications and Engagement Officer)