Nicola Allen

Nicola J. Allen is a British neuroscientist. Allen studies the role of astrocytes in brain development, homeostasis, and aging. Her work uncovered the critical roles these cells play in brain plasticity and disease. Allen is currently an associate professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Hearst Foundation Development Chair.

Education Allen conducted her undergraduate studies in Anatomical Sciences at the University of Manchester in England. She completed her doctoral degree in Neuroscience at University College London in the United Kingdom in the lab of David Attwell.

Research Allen's research focuses on how astrocytes regulate synapses in the brain during disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. In 2012 while she was a postdoc in the lab of Ben Barres, she showed that astrocytes secrete glypican 4 and 6, which is needed to create glutamatergic synapses between neurons. It also increased neuroplasticity in the brains of mice.

Awards and honours

Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) - 2018 Pew Scholar - 2015 Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Long Term Fellowship - 2005–2008 European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) Long Term Fellowship - 2004–2005 Wellcome Trust PhD Fellowship - 1999–2003

Selected publications