Jessica Gong

Current academic appointment

• Assistant Professor in Dementia Epidemiology and Data Science, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
• Honrary Senior Fellow, George Institute for Global Health, Imperial College London, UK
• Visiting Senior Fellow, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK

Education background

• Feb 2019 - Jun 2023: PhD in Epidemiology, George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Australia
• Sep 2016 - Sep 2017: MSc in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
• Mar 2013 - Nov 2015: BSc in Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Australia

My main research interests are dementia and brain ageing, with particular interests in sex differences, proteomics and exposomes. I leverage large biobanks, longitudinal population cohorts, and electronic health registries to understand the drivers and biological mechanisms of dementia and brain ageing. I use a wide range of epidemiological and machine learning methods including longitudinal modelling, causal inference approaches such as Mendelian randomization and quasi-experimental designs, gradient boosting and LASSO regression, and other predictive modelling techniques.

My work aims to identify modifiable risk factors and early biomarkers of neurodegeneration, with the ultimate goal of informing prevention strategies and improving risk stratification across diverse populations. I am particularly interested in integrating multi-omics data with environmental and clinical information to better characterise heterogeneity in ageing trajectories and dementia risk.