Tammaryn Lashley

Tammaryn Lashley (née Johnson) is a British neuroscientist specialising in neurodegenerative diseases who is a professor at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology. She is known for her research on the pathological mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Lashley led the Queen Square Brain Bank, one of the United Kingdom’s major centres for post‑mortem brain donation and neuropathological investigation.

Early life and education Lashley is from Redditch and attended Trinity High School. She completed her bachelor's degree in biochemistry at the University of Wales. Lashley worked in a lab at the National Institute for Medical Research, but thought that she could not start a PhD because of her undergraduate grades. She later joined University College London as a research technician. She started a doctorate, researching gene-related dementias. She completed her doctoral research part time while running the Queen Square Brain Bank histologies and having two children.

Frontotemporal dementia is the second most common cause of early‑onset dementia after Alzheimer's disease. Frontotemporal dementia is characterised by the degeneration of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes, accompanied by abnormal protein inclusions within affected cells. Lashley found that proteins responsible for transporting molecular messages between the nucleus and cytoplasm undergo altered localisation in frontotemporal dementia, which influences the formation of pathological abnormalities. Her research indicates that disrupted movement of multiple proteins (not only those found in characteristic inclusions) may contribute to disease mechanisms.

Lashley previously served as co‑chair of the UCL Alzheimer’s Research UK Network. In 2020, she was promoted to Professor of Neuroscience. and appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire Show.

Selected publications