Brains, books and building community: what to expect at BNA2025

Tara Spires-Jones is Director of the Center for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh (UK). Her research focuses on the mechanisms and reversibility of synapse degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. Tara’s work has shown that soluble forms of the pathological proteins amyloid beta and tau contribute to synapse degeneration. Further, her group has discovered that pathological forms of tau spread through the brain via synaptic connections. Tara is currently the President of the British Neuroscience Association (BNA; Bristol, UK), so we caught up with her ahead of the International Festival of Neuroscience, BNA2025 (27–30 April; Liverpool, UK), to discuss what...