Dr Paul Weightman Potter

Really pleased our new preprint is up! 🏈🧠 We explored head acceleration, previous contact-sport experience, and cognitive change across a British American football season. Small study, cautious conclusions. Feedback welcome! #TBI #Science #Brainhealth doi.org/10.64898/202...

I’m recruiting public contributors to help shape my Alzheimer’s Research UK-funded work on head impacts and future brain health. No scientific experience is needed. Paid role, with online and Exeter meetings. Interested? Email p.weightman-potter2@exeter.ac.uk by 31 Oct 2026. Please share! #PPIE

Today is the first day of my three-year @alzheimersresearchuk.org Fellowship, and it feels brilliant to finally get started "Shake, Shed, Spread" will explore how repeated head impacts alter brain-derived extracellular vesicles, and if they carry tau and affect brain-cell function #neuroscience #TIB

My new fellowship began long before the award. ARUK pilot funding supported the fieldwork and helped us validate neuron-enriched EV isolation, detect tau in pilot samples, and test EV effects in human neural-cell models. Now we can build on that groundwork at a much larger scale. 🧠🔬 #neuroscience

The #BrainInjuryAssociationofAmerica presents our #newfact sheet with #updated #braininjury #statistics for 2025. tinyurl.com/y9fuuc4h

Every 9 seconds, someone in the #UnitedStates, sustains a #braininjury. It is #estimated that over 10 million #TBIs occur #annually across the #globe and that over 57 million #people have been hospitalized with a #TBI during their #lifetime. tinyurl.com/2jhv2f7w

Research priorities identified by MRC

It is estimated 1.4 million visit hospital every year in the UK with a #braininjury and 200,000 are admitted. tinyurl.com/3c2fvjxp

🧪 Neuron-derived extracellular vesicles carry tau and inflammation signals after impacts. We are validating these as potential risk markers for athletes and exploring how they may spread pathology. #EVs #Biomarkers #Science #BrainInjury

I'm hiring! Come and work with me at UCL to try and understand how the brain's blood vessels go wrong and promote dementia: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

😴 Deep sleep supports waste clearance and learning. Protect your sleep after a head injury with a steady schedule, daytime exercise, and low light before bed. #Sleep #TBI #Recovery #BrainInjury

⭐️UKABIF Summit 2025 - Sessions are now on our YouTube channel.⭐️ Watch here: youtube.com/@ukabif?si=-... #UKABIF #UKABIFSummit #ABICommunity #NeuroRehabilitation #BrainInjury

Listen to a new podcast about fetal monitoring and #braininjury open.spotify.com/episode/4Gx1...

🩸 New #TBI biomarker signal EV-GFAP in blood rises after TBI and relates to CT findings, flagging acute injury. Other EV markers were less helpful here, and plasma #GFAP still works well. We need more studies to learn when EVs add value for patients. #Biomarkers #EVs #BrainInjury #Science 🧪

Repetitive concussions can harm brain function even without overt cell loss 🧠 New work in mice shows that repeat hits activate microglia, which then eat away at excitatory synaptic inputs. Learning and memory suffer, despite no obvious cell death or bruising. #Concussion #TBI #BrainInjury #Science 🧪

A new characterisation of acute traumatic brain injury: the NIH-NINDS TBI Classification and Nomenclature Initiative - The Lancet Neurology www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... #TBI #braininjury #Science 🧪

🧠It's important to understand how #CTE is different to other #brain diseases. In CTE, tau builds up around small blood vessels at the depths of cortical sulci, often in layers II and III. In #Alzheimers, tau tracks a different path and sits alongside amyloid plaques. #Science #BrainInjury🧪

🧪 Day in the lab. Isolating extracellular vesicles from plasma collected after #Americanfootball using size exclusion chromatography. Next I'm optimising a method called immunoprecipitation to further isolate neuron derived EVs. Excited to see what the data show. #TBI #LabLife #Science

#Microglia help explain why some people struggle cognitively after #TBI. Timing matters. Support early clean up, prevent long term overdrive, and protect synapses. Targeting microglia with the right therapy at the right time could change outcomes. #BrainInjury #Science 🧪

#Microglia also shape synapses, the connections that carry thoughts. After #TBI they may prune too much or release signals that destabilise these links, decreasing spine density and weakening brain circuits, especially in the hippocampus. #science #Braininjury 🧪

After #concussion, #inflammation aids clean up and injury resolution. If #microglia stay pro inflammatory for months or years, they keep releasing molecules that disrupt circuits, worsen blood #brain barrier leaks, and recruit more immune cells, prolonging symptoms. #BrainInjury #TBI #Science 🧪

Following #TBI, stress signals such as oxidative stress, calcium overload, and inflammatory signalling can push vulnerable neurons toward cell death. #Microglia may fuel this cascade, linking early injury to later memory issues. #Neuroscience #Braininjury #Science 🧪

Inflammation is a double-edged sword. Microglia patrol the brain. After #TBI they rush in, clear debris, and start repairs. Helpful inflammation can turn excessive, which then amplifies damage and impairs cognition. Balancing this response could be key. #Braininjury #Concussion #Science 🧪

🧠 After a head injury, thinking and memory can slip not only from the initial hit but also from how the brain’s immune cells called microglia respond over hours, days, and months. They can help OR they can prolong problems that affect cognition. #TBI #BrainInjury #Microglia

🧪 New study advances #TBI blood tests using single extracellular vesicles (EV) profiling. #Brain EVs captured from blood and read on a chip ID'd inflammatory signals in human and rodent models. Next we need larger cohorts and tau plus glial panels. #BrainInjury

🧠 After a #concussion, many people struggle to focus up close. That can mean headaches, blurry reading, and fatigue. A new study found that starting office-based vision therapy right away helped most people feel and focus better within 6 weeks, compared with waiting. #Braininjury #TBI

We are pleased to announce another PhD opportunity! Join Alexis Joannides for a PhD project on Imaging-Based AI Screening for Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, funded through our Fellowship Programme. Deadline 14th January 2026. Interested: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/phd-stu... Contact us for more details!

📰 Tina’s story shows how creativity can restore voice after brain injury. After a severe #TBI and coma, she learned BSL, earned Level 1, and helped build a deaf-aware community at Hughenden Gardens with Rose Ayling-Ellis’ project. Inspiring and practical. #BSL #BrainInjury #Concussion

Pleased to share a new podcast exploring concussion. hrc-braininjury.nihr.ac.uk/innovation-p... #ppi #scicomm #braininjury @braininjuryhrc.bsky.social

📣 @braininjuryhrc.bsky.social are gathering views on the unmet needs in brain injury care and ideas for tech that could improve outcomes. Be heard. Add your voice. Please share widely and repost. #BrainHealth #TBI #Concussion

Shane Christie’s story is heart breaking and urgent. The former Māori All Blacks and Highlanders player suffered severe symptoms after repeated head impacts and, after his death at 39, donated his brain to science. His legacy is a call for better care in rugby. #CTE #Rugby #Braininjury #Concussion

👏 Huge kudos to @braininjuryhrc.bsky.social for the Unmet Needs Directory. This needs more attention! 70 needs identified, 55 validated, mapping gaps from A&E to rehab and prevention. A brilliant launchpad for real solutions. hrc-braininjury.nihr.ac.uk/dun #BrainInjury #Research #neuroscience

As part of the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Collaborative, a new guidance on communicating about brain injury was developed for clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and people with lived experience. Key message: Brain injury doesn't define a person. It's just one part of who they are.

New NIH funded work by @jon-cherry.bsky.social and team shows repeated head impacts can cause early neuron loss and inflammation in young athletes, years before classic CTE changes. This shifts the focus to cumulative exposure. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #CTE #TBI #Braininjury #concussion

The next 12 months we will be analysing the neuron derived extracellular vesicles from American footballers to test whether they contain any #TBI or #CTE related markers and if they induce #neurodegeneration like behaviour in cells. #braininjury #dementia #concussion

Head impacts in sport raise dementia risk for some people. We will study neuron derived extracellular vesicles in blood to learn how injury signals spread and how we can stop them. #TBI #CTE #Dementia #EVs #Neuroscience