Conceição Bettencourt works in the field of neuro-epigenetics. She studies the involvement of disrupted molecular pathways and DNA methylation in neurodegenerative diseases using human post-mortem brain tissue.^[1][2] She is Professorial Research Fellow of the Alzheimer's Research UK,^[3] at UCL, and co-leads the Genetics and Omics Working Group of the international Deep Dementia Phenotyping (DEMON) network.^[4]

Bettencourt studied Biology and Human Genetics at the University of the Azores, where she conducted her PhD on "Machado-Joseph disease: from genetic variability to clinical heterogeneity".^[5] She then trained as a postdoc in Spain and the Netherlands.^[6]

• Murthy, Megha; Cheng, Yun Yung; Holton, Janice L.; Bettencourt, Conceição (December 2021). "Neurodegenerative movement disorders: An epigenetics perspective and promise for the future". Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology. 47 (7): 897–909. doi:10.1111/nan.12757. PMC 9291277. PMID 34318515.
• Bettencourt, Conceição; Foti, Sandrine C.; Miki, Yasuo; Botia, Juan; Chatterjee, Aparajita; Warner, Thomas T.; Revesz, Tamas; Lashley, Tammaryn; Balazs, Robert; Viré, Emmanuelle; Holton, Janice L. (January 2020). "White matter DNA methylation profiling reveals deregulation of HIP1, LMAN2, MOBP, and other loci in multiple system atrophy". Acta Neuropathologica. 139 (1): 135–156. doi:10.1007/s00401-019-02074-0. PMC 6942018. PMID 31535203.
• Bettencourt, Conceição; Hensman-Moss, Davina; Flower, Michael; Wiethoff, Sarah; Brice, Alexis; Goizet, Cyril; Stevanin, Giovanni; Koutsis, Georgios; Karadima, Georgia; Panas, Marios; Yescas-Gómez, Petra; García-Velázquez, Lizbeth Esmeralda; Alonso-Vilatela, María Elisa; Lima, Manuela; Raposo, Mafalda; Traynor, Bryan; Sweeney, Mary; Wood, Nicholas; Giunti, Paola; Durr, Alexandra; Holmans, Peter; Houlden, Henry; Tabrizi, Sarah J.; Jones, Lesley (June 2016). "DNA repair pathways underlie a common genetic mechanism modulating onset in polyglutamine diseases: DNA Repair Pathways Modify polyQ Disease Onset". Annals of Neurology. 79 (6): 983–990. doi:10.1002/ana.24656. PMC 4914895. PMID 27044000.
• Bettencourt, Conceição; Forabosco, Paola; Wiethoff, Sarah; Heidari, Moones; Johnstone, Daniel M.; Botía, Juan A.; Collingwood, Joanna F.; Hardy, John; Milward, Elizabeth A.; Ryten, Mina; Houlden, Henry (March 2016). "Gene co-expression networks shed light into diseases of brain iron accumulation". Neurobiology of Disease. 87: 59–68. doi:10.1016/j.nbd.2015.12.004. PMC 4731015. PMID 26707700.
• Bettencourt, Conceição; Ryten, Mina; Forabosco, Paola; Schorge, Stephanie; Hersheson, Joshua; Hardy, John; Houlden, Henry (1 July 2014). "Insights From Cerebellar Transcriptomic Analysis Into the Pathogenesis of Ataxia". JAMA Neurology. 71 (7): 831–839. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2014.756. PMC 4469030. PMID 24862029.