Question: Have you always wanted to go into your field?

Nina Rzechorzek answered on 6 Jun 2019:

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to treat patients with neurological problems and do research to find new treatments for them. There are many things that influenced this decision, one was an endless curiosity and that when I was growing up, we seemed to know so little about how the brain worked, and what happened when it went wrong. Another reason is that several members of my family were affected by brain disorders for which there were few or no treatments (stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, brain trauma). Finally, managing patients in the clinic with brain disorders highlighted a lack of knowledge and the need for more research in this area – it’s very frustrating having to accept ‘there is nothing or nothing more we can offer this patient’, and although companion animals are also living longer (like their owners) brain disorders can affect animals of all ages. More recently, scientists have realised how important the circadian system is to brain health, and that this system is affected in many brain disorders – that is why I have moved into circadian research because understanding this has the potential to develop new treatments for a whole range of brain disorders. So overall, my research interests have evolved over time and have been shaped by my experiences with patients, and my drive to offer something better for them in the future.