Meet your Academic… Dr Seva Telezhkin
23 April 2024
Can you share a little about your background?
I graduated as physiologist-biophysicist, my PhD and my first postdoctoral employment was in the field of vascular research. After a few years my interests diverted to the neuroscience and stem cell biology. I am particularly excited about exploring the pathways of neuropathic orofacial pain and its management. I think that I am really lucky occupying a niche of nontrivial in vitro models and investigating the cross-links between various types of pain, inflammation, aging and neuronal degeneration and exploring the pathways of rescuing from these conditions.
What did you enjoy most about your time at university?
University time when I was a student, no doubt, is the brightest, most exhilarating, and cherished period. This is when you are young, cheerful, surrounded with friends and your future profession of researcher seems an exciting journey full of breakthroughs and discoveries. Emotional feeling of freedom and enthusiasm to learn and develop was dominant and all the problems seem to be insignificant and easy-to-resolve. I think that I was very lucky to have knowledgeable, supportive, and extremely patient university staff.
Do you have a favourite University memory?
The most exciting memory was taking part in my first research conference, when I was listening to the talks and met the colleagues from various countries and institutions. Interestingly, that conference made up my future career as it was the first time, I met Professor David A Brown (FRS) from UCL. By that time, I was training to become a vascular physiologist and did not expect that one day I was going to become a neuroscientist, moreover I hardly could imagine that I would ever work with Prof Brown - the legend of neurophysiology.
Any tips for settling in and meeting new people?
Being friendly, open minded and optimistic is probably the most obvious and straightforward approach in the new environment, when starting new activities and meeting new people. A lot of potential problems could be easily resolved with positive and constructive attitude. Also, I would not be shy to ask for someone’s help if experiencing difficulties as well as giving a hand to the people who might need it.