Marcella is a multidisciplinary researcher in the field of neuroscience, specialising in neuroimaging and computational psychiatry. She is currently involved in two main projects. The first project focuses on utilising real-world memory clinic data from the NHS in combination with machine learning methods to develop early markers for dementia detection and prognosis. This is part of a Wellcome Trust Innovator Award led by Dr Tim Rittman, Professor Zoe Kourtzi, and Professor Guy Williams. Linked to this research, Marcella has also conducted pilot work on implementing federated learning for dementia, a cutting-edge approach that enables collaborative analysis of distributed data without sharing sensitive patient information.
In her second project, Marcella focuses on studying hallucinations across psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Utilising state-of-the-art methods, she analyses large, trans-diagnostic datasets to identify shared brain networks and biomarkers linked to psychosis. By employing graph theory, neuroimaging, and machine learning, Marcella aims to develop reliable biomarkers and predictive prognostic models, ultimately enhancing our understanding of psychosis and paving the way for new treatments for patients with psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
Marcella received her BA and MPhil in Medical Sciences from Cambridge University (King's College). She then pursued her PhD at King's College London, conducting research on psychosis in Parkinson's Disease. During her doctoral work, Marcella specialized in graph theory and employed advanced neuroimaging techniques to investigate brain networks associated with visual hallucinations. In the final year of her PhD she was awarded a competitive NIHR SPARC Award to visit the Bullmore lab in Cambridge and was later affiliated with Trinity College (Cambridge).
Beyond her research, Marcella is an ambassador for the Women Techmakers Initiative powered by Google, where she actively advocates for underrepresented groups, promotes open access to coding and AI resources, and fosters an inclusive tech community.
