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Toby Aarons is a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Science, Engineering and Environment at the University of Salford. Toby joins the FASD team in the group of Dr Arijit Mukhopadhyay, focusing his research on small RNA biomarkers of prenatal alcohol exposure, where he hopes to support the understanding of the biological pathways associated in FASD and find biomarkers that can help quicker diagnosis.  

Toby’s research background is based in molecular biology, having undergraduate and masters degrees in biomedical science from Manchester Metropolitan University. During this time, he investigated cognitive ageing and neurodegenerative diseases, focusing on how environmental and genetic interactions regulated neurotrophic factors (essential for brain function), in healthy brain ageing and in Alzheimer’s disease. Following his masters, Toby worked at the University of Manchester, looking into models of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. It was here that he was first involved in research into maternal stress, particularly inflammatory, during prenatal development and the subsequent risk of neurodevelopmental disorders.

In his PhD, Toby investigated novel biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease, specifically, whether extracellular vesicles (small vehicle-like bubbles that are released from cells in the body) contained small RNA cargo, and whether it was altered due to the underlying molecular stresses occurring in Alzheimer’s disease. Extracellular vesicles from the brain can reach the blood and therefore, make a promising and accessible candidate to observe changes that happen in the brain in many neurological disorders.