Discover the true role of serotonin in mood and learn how a neural engineer monitors live brain cells to make music.
PubSci is a ‘pay-what-you-can’ event. Your contributions are what keeps it going. Please consider contributing via Eventbrite when booking.
What makes depression hard to clinically diagnose and difficult to treat, why does it frequently go hand-in-hand with other conditions. July’s speaker has made it her life’s work to understand the chemistry of the brain in order to offer better tests and treatments.
For the seventh in our 2026 talks programme, on Wednesday 22nd July PubSci is delighted to welcome Dr Parry Hashemi, a neural engineer at Imperial College, London to explain how, and why, she and her team measure serotonin in living brain cells — and what they are doing with the results.
Serotonin is popularly known as the happiness molecule but its relationship with depression is complex, and measuring neurotransmitters in living brains remained a challenge for decades, with the risks of invasive surgery outweighing benefits in all but the most extreme cases.
Responding to this paradox, Dr Parry Hashemi’s team at London’s Imperial College has developed a revolutionary, non-invasive technique for tracking serotonin levels in living neurons in real time.
On 22nd July, PubSci is delighted to welcome Dr Hashemi to the Old King’s Head to talk about the role of serotonin in mood and depression, explain the previously overlooked mechanisms that limit its availability in depressed brains, and share her own groundbreaking work to end the social stigma of mental health once and for all.
Drawing on some of the most recent research into serotonin and other neurotransmitters, she’ll explain how an objective clinical test for depression is within our grasp for the first time in human history.
And if that sounds a bit heavy and dramatic, you’ll be delighted to know she’ll also be explaining how her team has been using music to visualise the changing levels of serotonin in living cells as they experience different drugs and conditions!
Join PubSci and Parry Hashemi at the Old King’s Head on 22nd July to explore the sounds of serotonin.
This will be a hugely popular event, and half the tickets went within a week of it being put on Eventbrite. BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT. Please note, 22nd is the fourth Wednesday in July to avoid clashing with the men’s football World Cup tournament.
The venue is PubSci’s regular home, The Old King’s Head near Borough Market, which offers a great range of drinks, has a happy hour before 7pm, and opens the kitchen serving classic pub grub especially for us.
How to Book Tickets
PubSci talks are pay-what-you-can: You can make a contribution when booking on Eventbrite. We have no other source of funding. There are two ticket options:
Book for one + Support PubSci (max 1 ticket) if you prefer to contribute when booking – this option also reserves you one spot at the event. You may need to scroll down to see this option on Eventbrite.
Book without donating (max 4 tickets) if you prefer to put cash in the pot on the night.
Doors open at 6.30 for a 7pm start. Talks generally run for ~45 minutes and are followed by a Q&A session. The Old King’s Head has a happy hour before 7pm, and the kitchen serves excellent pub grub. The nearest tube is London Bridge — full address below and on the booking page.
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About our speaker
Dr Parry Hashemi is a neural engineer and Reader in Neural Diagnostics and Therapeutics at Imperial College, London. She is renowned within her field for developing technologies to measure neurotransmitters in the brain and the growing fields of the gut-brain and skin-brain axes.
Dr Hashemi has an MSci in Chemistry from King’s College, London and a PhD from the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College where she developed techniques for measuring neurological damage markers in patients with traumatic brain injuries.
She worked in the USA for 15 years, initially as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina where she developed the first method for measuring serotonin in living cells using a technique known as fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV). She was assistant professor at Wayne State University, before achieving a tenured professorship in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of North Carolina.
In 2019 Parry returned to the UK to take up a post at Imperial College. She is a former associate editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Advances and is currently an editor for ACS Chemical Neuroscience. She received the Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award and the Royce W. Murray Award for early career accomplishments in electroanalytical chemistry, is an unwavering advocate for women and minorities in science and engineering, and in 2018 gave a well-received TEDx talk.
Parry somehow combines all this, and overseeing 150 PhD candidates, with being mother to two lively children and a dog, is an accomplished a flautist and sings in a band. You can follow her team’s work at hashemilab.com
PubSci is delighted to welcome Parry as our speaker for July 2026.
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See the rest of our current programme
To make sure you don’t miss out on future events, subscribe to our Google Calendar to be the first to know when new talks are scheduled, and follow PubSci’s events on Eventbrite to be notified when tickets are available. You can also sign up to our own mailing list on any page on this site.
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PubSci is entirely funded by audience contributions and has no other income.
As a Pay-What-You-Can event, we don’t charge a fixed price for our talks, so anybody who wants to come can come. Think of it as “Free, with a donation”, which can be made when registering on Eventbrite or by putting a few pounds in the beer mug which is passed round on the night. You can also contribute digitally through our TipJar. Please help PubSci continue putting on events.
We aim to keep PubSci accessible for all, although it is unsuitable for under 18s as we meet in the function room of a pub. Regrettably, there is no wheelchair access.
Check out the Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our Google Calendar so PubSci events automatically appear in your own Calendar. You can find all our links on our LinkTree.
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PubSci is organised and hosted by science communicator, Richard Marshall, assisted by Mike Lucibella. It usually takes place on the third Wednesday of the month, upstairs at the Old King’s Head near London Bridge Underground (Borough High Street east side exit). Join us every month except December for your regular helping of Sipping, Supping & Science.
Address:
The Old King’s Head (upstairs room)
King’s Head Yard
45-49 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NA
PubSci 