Dr Bushra Ahmed, Course Leader for BSc Biomedical Science and Portfolio Leader for Postgraduate Courses at the Department of Life Sciences, took staff and students through her experiences across the world, from humble beginnings in Pakistan, to spells in Japan, the Netherlands and the USA, culminating with a ten-year stint here, at Bedfordshire.

Speaking two days after Women’s Day, Bushra acknowledged that “there are so many problems that come in your life but you just have to go on”.

She added: “It [being a woman] was a minor problem earlier on. When I got a scholarship in America, the only reason I was not allowed to go alone was because I was a girl.

“My brother went abroad and was not stopped. My mum never differentiated between a girl or a boy but she was worried about the society.”

Despite that, Bushra, Principal Lecturer in Biochemistry, never strayed from her path to becoming a neuroscientist.

Bushra’s fascination with the human brain led to 2013's breakthrough discovery that neurons in patients with Parkinson’s disease die as they cannot detoxify the chemicals produced during metabolic reactions that are normally non-toxic in unaffected individuals.

The next step in Bushra’s journey is to prevent those cells from dying and, ultimately, invent a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

“During my breakthrough one and a half years ago, I was just looking at one cell,” said Bushra.” It’s important to find where the fault is; we need to find the mechanism of the fault and correct it.

“That’s something that I’m working on. If I am able to save this neuron, that means we are going to save lives.

“That’s the goal of my life. So far, whatever I have planned, I have achieved.”