Mina Ryten

Mina Ryten is a British geneticist who is Professor and Director of the Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. Her research uses human brain transcriptomics to understand neurological conditions. She was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2025.

Early life and education Ryten originally trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge, where she was a member of Clare College. She moved to University College London, where she started an MBPhD (an intensive research placement during an undergraduate medical degree). Her doctoral research considered purinergic signalling in skeletal muscle development.

Ryten worked as a junior doctor in the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and was awarded a clinical fellowship in neurology. After earning her doctorate, she was awarded a Medical Research Council postdoctoral fellowship, where she trained in bioinformatics and systems biology with John Hardy.

Research and career Ryten set up her own independent group at University College London in 2017. She moved into the UCL Institute of Child Health. She uses transcriptomic data as a genomic readout to better understand biological processes, and understand how RNA processing goes wrong in disease. She develops open access tools for human brain transcriptomic analysis, making it possible to visualise transcript structure, interrogate mitochondira-nuclear relationships and improve genetic diagnosis.

Ryten moved to the University of Cambridge as Director of the Dementia Research Institute in January 2024. She is interested in the interpretation of RNA sequences from human brain tissue to better understand neurodegenerative conditions. She is particularly interested in Lewy body diseases.

Ryten was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2025.

Selected publications