Lunch Hour Lectures - What Can Thousands of Brains Teach Us About Disease?

What can a brain tell us after someone has died, and how does that knowledge help us to predict and treat diseases?

To mark Brain Awareness Week 2026, Dr Zane Jaunmuktane will share insights from her work as an academic neuropathologist, where she studies brain tissue under the microscope to uncover the causes of conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and brain tumours.

Drawing on her work as an academic neuropathologist and researcher, she will explain how examining donated brains helps scientists understand how these diseases start and spread, and why they affect people so differently. Dr Jaunmuktane will also explore the future of brain research, including how artificial intelligence is transforming the way we study brain diseases and opening new pathways toward better diagnosis and treatments.

About the speaker:

Dr Zane Jaunmuktane is an academic neuropathologist based at the Division of Neuropathology and the Queen Square Brain Bank, where she is actively involved in advancing both clinical practice and research in neuropathology. Her areas of expertise encompass molecular neuro-oncology, as well as the analysis of peripheral nerve biopsies.

Additionally, Dr Jaunmuktane specializes in neurodegenerative diseases associated with misfolded protein aggregation, with a particular focus on their mechanisms of progression and pathological diversity.

About the chair:

Professor Helene Plun-Favreau is a cell biologist by training.
After a PhD in France (Angers University) in signal transduction, Helene did her postdoctoral work with Professor Julian Downward at CRUK. The discoveries and work she did in this area led her towards neurodegeneration and she was successful in being appointed to an MRC Career Development Fellowship to work in the Department of Molecular Neuroscience at UCL Institute of Neurology. Since her arrival in 2007 Helene has carried out some significant work on the molecular pathways associated with mitophagy and other mitochondrial dysfunctions in neurodegenerative disorders. The approaches they have undertaken require live cell microscopy and complex molecular and cellular biology, and provide a more complete picture of the pathways that play a role in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration.

This is an online event the joining link will be provided closer to the event date.