Dr. Emma Devenney is a cognitive neurologist and neuroscientist whose research focuses on the early diagnosis and biomarker development for neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and motor neurone disease. She has a particular interest in how genetic risk influences cognition and behaviour across the disease course. Additionally, advancing equity in global dementia care and research by addressing disparities in diagnosis, access to interventions, and representation in biomarker and clinical studies across diverse populations. Dr. Devenney is actively involved in international research collaborations, including with the University of San Francisco, University of London, and University of Amsterdam, and is a Principal Investigator for the NIH-funded Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Disease Network in Sydney. Dr. Devenney received her PhD in neuroscience from UNSW, supported by an international scholarship, and completed advanced clinical and research training in the UK and Australia.
I studied neuroscience for my undergraduate degree in University College Dublin (UCD) from 2014 to 2018. In September 2018, I started lab rotations on the Wellcome Trust Neuroscience PhD programme in University College London (UCL), where I worked in the groups of Prof Patricia Salinas and Prof David Attwell. I chose to do my PhD in the lab of Dr Soyon Hong at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI) at UCL from September 2019. Since passing my PhD viva in November 2023, I have continued working in the Hong lab as a UKDRI cross-centre postdoctoral research fellow.