“I wanted to work on something that didn’t exist”

Georgina Gustin spotlights the research journey of Professor Polina Anikeeva, who developed flexible brain probes to stimulate neurons and potentially treat neurological disorders. In 2017, she became fascinated by the hypothesis that Parkinson’s might be linked to pathogens in the digestive system. Today Anikeeva and her team use specialized devices to explore the brain-gut connection. “This is a new frontier,” she says.