Clinical & Veterinary

Clinical & Veterinary

Clinical and veterinary researchers are naturally focused around Clinical School and the School of Veterinary Science. The University recently established a new Department of Clinical Neurosciences to include the former University units of Neurology and Neurosurgery, the Brain Repair Centre and the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre. Research in this areas has a strong emphasis on clinical application in conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, brain injury, autism, schizophrenia and depression. There are clear links between clinical and veterinary science, as well as fundamental science research conducted within the School of Biology.

Principal investigators

• Professor Franklin Aigbirhio
  Research in the development and application of molecular imaging probes, in particular for the in vivo imaging technique of positron emission tomography. Objectives are to design, develop and apply imaging probes that are specific and selective to...
• Dr Richard Ansorge
  My current interests include hardware and software development for various medical imaging modalities, especially PET and MRI. This work is done in close collaboration with the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre. One particular current project is the d...
• Professor Topun Austin
  I am a Consultant Neonatologist in Cambridge and Honorary Professor of Neurophotonics at University College London and have an interest in brain injury and imaging in the newborn. I lead the Evelyn Perinatal Imaging Centre (EPIC), based at the Ro...
• Dr Gemma Bale
  Gemma is the head of the Neuro Optics Lab, a new, multidisciplinary research group that operates jointly between the Departments of Physics and Engineering at the University of Cambridge. We develop and validate new optical methods to monitor brai...
• Dr Gabriel Balmus
  My lab is interested in understanding the roles of DNA Damage Repair (DDR) in mature neurons and its links to neurodegenerative disorders (including Alzheimer's and related diseases) and ageing. We are using a variety of tools including CRISPR-Ca...
• Professor Manohar Bance
  I am a clinician-scientist interested in disorders of hearing and balance In particular, we are interested in how cochlear implants stimulate the auditory system, ways to improve stimulation, measuring outcomes and measures of hearing and balance ...
• Professor Roger Barker
  I work on: Clinical aspects of Parkinson's and Huntington's disease including the study of disease heterogeneity using cognitive testing, functional imaging and genetic biomarkers. Examining the value of different biomarkers to assess disease onse...
• Professor Jean-Claude Baron
  My research focuses on the pathophysiology of ischaemic stroke and the mechanisms underlying subsequent deterioration or recovery, including neuronal damage, tissue inflammation and long-term plasticity processes. In terms of methodology, my appro...
• Dr Damiano G. Barone
  Due to the inability of the nervous system to regenerate itself, injuries to the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerve can have a profound impact on patients, their families and society. Current treatment options remain limited. Bioelectronics...
• Professor German Berrios
  I am interested in the study of psychiatric symptoms (e.g. hallucinations, delusions, obsessions) appearing in the context of neurological disease. Since the 19th century, the view that 'mental symptoms' seen in the context of neurological diseas...
• Professor Carol Brayne
  My research programme is based around longitudinal population based studies of people aged 65 and above, running since 1985. They include collections of blood, and are linked to the Cambridge Brain Bank. Opportunities exist for translation from la...
• Professor Kevin Brindle
  We have developed non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that enable us to track labelled cells that have been implanted in the CNS. This work has been conducted in collaboration with Robin Franklin. In addition we are developi...
• Dr Will Brown
  The Brown Group focuses on reducing disability in multiple sclerosis, one of the most common causes of disability in the young. We use real-world data to optimise the use of existing disease-modifying therapies and to explore novel repair strategi...
• Dr Stephanie Brown
  I am interested in studying the degenerative brain changes in people with Down’s syndrome using sophisticated brain scanning techniques. Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow high resolution images of the brain using 7 Tesla MR...
• Dr Raymond Bujdoso
  Prion diseases such as scrapie of sheep and goats, BSE of cattle and CJD of humans are transmissible neurodegenerative diseases. The research of our prion group is concerned with providing knowledge to try and answer some of the important question...
• Professor Ed Bullmore
  I am interested in understanding human brain network organization from neuroimaging data in health and disease. My recent methodological work has focused on graph theory to measure aspects of brain network topology. I am also interested in bette...
• Dr Philip Buttery
  We work on the role of rho family GTPases and their regulators in the plasticity of CNS synapses, as related to brain disease and recovery from brain injury. We are currently focussing on a regulator of the GTPase Rac1 which is upregulated with n...
• Dr Adrian Carpenter
  Our group develops new techniques for the acquisition and analysis of PET and MR images to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of disease. We also develop novel instrumentation, for example we are an internationally leading centre d...
• Dr Jonathan Coles
  As a clinician specialising within Neurointensive care my research interests are focused on describing the pathophysiology of head injury and optimising patient outcome. Using the combined facilities of the Wolfson Brain Imaging and Neurosciences ...
• Professor Alasdair Coles
  We study people with immunological illnesses of the brain, especially multiple sclerosis. Our most important work to date has been on alemtuzumab (Campath-1H), a humanised monoclonal antibody made originally in Cambridge. We started using it to t...
• Dr Tony Coll
  My current research continues to focus upon the roles of the hypothalamus in the control of energy balance. Our current understanding of the central control of appetite has relied heavily upon mouse models and I continue to utilise the power of b...
• Professor William Colledge
  My research group is interested in the neuroendocrine regulation of mammalian fertility using transgenic mice as a model system. Puberty and the regulation of mammalian fertility is controlled by hormonal signalling within the hypothalamus. My re...
• Professor Alastair Compston
  My research interests focus on clinical and experimental demyelinating disease with an emphasis on multiple sclerosis - the commonest potentially disabling disease of young adults. The research group has a broad set of interests: we work on the a...
• Dr Sarah Crisp
  My goal is to advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying neurological diseases associated with autoantibodies. These diseases include forms of encephalitis, epilepsy, demyelination, movement disorders and peripheral neuropathies amongs...
• Professor Marek Czosnyka
  Brain Physics summarizes physical interactions between volumes, flows and pressures in brain. Measurement, data processing and analysis, forecasting and modeling of various cerebral phenomena as autoregulation of CBF or pressure-volume compensatio...
• Dr Robert Dudas
  I have carried out research projects on cognitive impairment in the context of progressive-degenerative dementias and affective symptomatology. My current interest in dementia spans from risk factors to clinical management. I have also investiga...
• Professor Karen Ersche
  My research focuses on the neuropsychological correlates and neurochemical processes underlying addictive behaviour and the translation of this knowledge into therapeutic interventions. This work involves a combination of approaches including neur...
• Dr Emilio Fernandez-Egea
  My research interests are mostly the biological and clinical aspects of chronic schizophrenia. I’m the Clozapine Clinic Lead for the local MH Trust (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust). We study treatment resistant schizophrenia ...
• Professor Paul Freeman Dip ECVN
  The role of calcification in intervertebral disc herniation is poorly understood. We are shedding new light on this process through use of Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance, with the g...
• Jane Garrison
  Investigating reality testing failures in hallucinations, including in schizophrenia
• Dr Michel Goedert
  Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are characterized by the presence of abnormal filamentous assemblies within some nerve cells. Similar assemblies are found in related disorders, including progressive supranuclear palsy, dementia with Le...
• Dr Tobias Goehring
  My focus lies on improving the perception of speech for people with hearing loss in everyday life, especially in difficult listening situations with interfering background sounds. I combine techniques from Engineering, Auditory Neuroscience and Ma...
• Professor Fiona Gribble
  Endocrine communication between the gut and brain, relaying food-related signals that control appetite and metabolism.
• Dr Mark Gurnell
  Current programmes of research: 1. endocrine basis of financial decision-making 2. genetic and acquired disorders of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis 3. novel approaches to sparing hypothalamic-pituitary function in patients with sellar/par...
• Dr Ajay Halai
  I completed a cross discipline PhD (MRC Capacity-Building) at the University of Manchester, combining psychology with neuroimaging. I gained technical skills such as acquiring and analysing multi-modal neuroimaging data (MRI, fMRI, EEG and diffusi...
• Dr Eric Harshfield
  I am a chronic disease and genetic epidemiologist with an interest in identifying novel causal pathways and new therapeutic targets for reducing risk of chronic diseases. Since 2018 I have been working in the Stroke Research Group in the Departmen...
• Mr Adel Helmy PhD FRCS (SN)
  My research interests are in Acute Brain Injury (Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Subarachnoid Haemorrhage (SAH)) and in particular the innate inflammatory response following TBI. Inflammation plays a role in secondary injury following TBI, but is...
• Professor Joe Herbert
  I am interested in the role of the brain in adaptive responses, with particular reference to the reciprocal interaction between hormones and the brain. My experimental work is focussed on the way that neural factors, such as serotonin and glucocor...
• Professor Peter Hutchinson
  I am a NIHR Research Professor at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. I have a general neurosurgical practice with a subspecialist interest in...
• Dr Phil Jones
  We are investigating how normal stem cells transform into cancer cells in a range of sytems, both by studying stem and progenitor cell fate and also by investigating the role of a specific cell fate regulators. Our focus has been on Hes6, which r...
• Professor Peter Jones
  The Cambridge “epiCentre” group works at the interface between population-based research, neuroscience and clinical psychiatry in order to understand the causes, mechanisms and treatments for psychosis (particularly schizophrenia) dementia, depres...
• Dr Ragnhildur Thora Karadottir
  My lab’s interests are neurotransmitter signalling to oligodendrocytes and their progenitor cells, in both health and disease. Oligodendrocytes produce myelin (in the CNS), which speeds the propagation of the action potential. When the myelin s...
• Mr Angelos Kolias MD, MSc, PhD, FRCS (SN)
  Mr Kolias is a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Neurosurgeon at the University of Cambridge & Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK. His clinical interests include surgery for brain tumours (special interest in skull base/pituitary surgery)...
• Dr Mark Kotter
  My group is interested in the biology of adult CNS stem and precursor cells in the context of disease. A particular focus lies on mechanisms of CNS remyelination, a stem/precursor cell-mediated process in which new myelin sheaths are restored to d...
• Dr Andras Lakatos
  My laboratory develops and uses human organoid and other stem cell-based models to explore mechanisms underlying glia-neuron-synapse interactions in development, injury and neurodegenerative disorders, including ALS and Frontotemporal Dementia. We...
• Professor Matt Lambon Ralph FBA FMedSci
  Research programmes: 1. Semantic cognition and its disorders 2. Aphasia 3. Recovery, rehabilitation and neuroplasticity Our research makes parallel use of multiple methodologies in an attempt to secure convergent insights on the given research to...
• Dr Michael Lee
  Chronic pain is defined simply as pain that persists beyond 3 months, but in reality is a suffering marked by emotional distress and physical disability. For many patients, the extent of disease or injury does not fully account for the severity of...
• Dr Chao Li
  Dr Li is a Senior Research Fellow with expertise in both clinical neuroscience and computation modelling. Dr Li is particularly interested in developing novel machine learning approaches based on imaging and multi-omics data to for personalised ma...
• Dr Michael Lombardo
  I am interested in understanding the mechanisms occurring in early development that are behind atypical brain development in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
• Professor Giovanna Mallucci FMedSci
  My lab is interested in understanding mechanisms of neurodegeneration. The central theme is the identification of common pathways across the spectrum of these disorders (which include Alzheimer's and related diseases) that are relevant for both me...
• Dr Tom Manly
  Our research relates to understanding impairment and rehabilitation in attentional and executive function. Our work with stroke patients mainly focuses on spatial neglect and its relationship to executive/frontal impairment. Our work with patients...
• Professor Hugh Markus
  I use molecular genetic and neuroimaging (MRI and Transcranial Doppler) techniques to investigate the pathogenesis of, and develop treatments for, cerebrovascular disease. A particular interest is in cerebral small vessel disease, a major cause of...
• Professor Keith Martin
  The main goal of our group is to understand better the mechanisms of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death in glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. We aim to develop methods to protect RGC thus slowing the progression of gla...
• Dr Matthew Mason
  I investigate the function and evolution of the middle ear apparatus in vertebrates. Comparative anatomy is backed up with more recent techniques, such as micro-CT and laser interferometry, in order to visualise the middle ear structures and exami...
• Professor David Menon
  The research program of the University Division of Anaesthesia has aimed to understand regional cerebral pathophysiology to advance the care of critically ill patients after brain injury, from initial ictus, through recovery from coma and rehabili...
• Dr Su Metcalfe
  The application of nanotechnology to healthcare - nano-medicine - is now recognised worldwide as a new era in clinical medicine. By loading biocompatible, biodegradable nano-particles with growth factor, and targeting to sites of tissue damage, a ...
• Professor Brian Moore
  Mechanisms of normal hearing and hearing impairments; relationship of auditory abilities to speech perception; design of signal processing hearing aids for sensorineural hearing loss; fitting of hearing aids to suit the individual; electrical stim...
• Dr Graham Murray
  I work on the causes, brain mechanisms and treatments of mental disorder. I utilize a variety of neuroscience techniques, including statistical genomics, brain imaging, computational psychiatry, pharmacological and neuropsychological studies in pa...
• Professor Pradeep Nathan
  I am a clinical pharmacologist with research interests in the neuropharmacology and neural substrates of cognition and emotion and psychiatric and neurological endophenotypes. I use cognitive, functional and molecular neuroimaging techniques (i.e....
• Dr Camilla Nord
  I am Group Leader at the University of Cambridge, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, and Director of Studies in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Christ’s College Cambridge. My lab investigates the neural, cognitive, and computational ...
• Professor John T O'Brien
  My research interests include the role of biomarkers, especially MRI, SPECT and PET imaging, in the differential and early diagnosis of dementia, including identifying those 'at risk' of future cognitive decline and developing markers of onset and...
• Professor Jesus Perez
  My research activity is mainly focused on early detection and intervention in psychosis. I am particularly interested in the epidemiology and psychopathology of people at high-risk of developing psychosis, with psychotic experiences and with first...
• Dr Luca Peruzzotti-Jametti
  Research in our group is focused on the understanding of inflammation in central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Over the past years, our research in regenerative neuroimmunology led to novel experimental advanced therapeutics with neural stem cell...
• Professor Stephen Price
  Glioblastomas are the most aggressive, malignant primary tumour of the brain. They are also unfortunately the commonest. We have not seen any new treatments in over a decade. My group is particularly interested in focal therapies, surgery and radi...
• Dr Christopher Proctor
  Chris's research is focused on engineering bionic systems to improve healthcare and advance bioscience. On going project themes include: Electronic drug delivery: Targeted drug delivery can focus treatment on the region of the body affected by a ...
• Dr Ruma Raha-Chowdhury
  My main interest is in innate immunity, inflammation and brain iron homeostasis. Inflammation and innate immunity are key players in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Down syndrome (DS). Individuals with DS have a spectrum of hematopoietic dysfunction...
• Dr Rhys Roberts
  Our group is interested in peripheral nerve diseases, particularly the inherited peripheral neuropathies, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). We have focused on the demyelinating forms of CMT, where defects in intracellular membrane trafficking p...
• Professor James B. Rowe
  Dementia and Neurodegeneration have devastating consequences. My work aims to protect brain function in those at risk of dementia, and restore brain function in those with symptoms. My program has four pillars: 1. to define cognitive processes tha...
• Professor David Rubinsztein
  The pathogenesis of diseases caused by codon reiteration mutations (like Huntington’s disease and oculopharangeal muscular dystrophy). Description of research: We are studying the pathogenesis of diseases caused by codon reiteration mutations, l...
• Dr Nina Rzechorzek
  Hosted by the O'Neill Lab, I am a physiologist and clinical academic, specialising in veterinary neurology and neurosurgery. My research focuses on brain temperature and how this interacts with the molecular circadian clockwork in human brain cell...
• Dr Umar Sadat
  1. Ultrasound, Computerised Tomography, Magnetic resonance imaging, Cellular Imaging of atherosclerosis 2. Role of biomechanics in pathogenesis of atherosclerotic plaques, aortic aneurysms and in aortic stent graft design & failure 3. Contrast-in...
• Professor Barbara Sahakian FMedSci DSc
  My research is aimed at understanding the neural basis of cognitive, emotional and behavioural dysfunction in order to develop more effective pharmacological and psychological treatments. The focus of my lab is on early detection, differential dia...
• Professor Stephen Sawcer
  My group researches multiple sclerosis. We use genetic analysis to identify relevant variants and then attempt to understand the immunological and neurobiological consequences of these using expression studies and functional assays. As well as con...
• Dr Ewan Smith
  The main interest of the Smith lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms by which sensory neurones detect noxious stimuli, so-called nociceptors. We are particularly interested in how acid activates nociceptors in both physiological and pathop...
• Professor Robert Tasker
  1. Multicenter clinical studies: In the USA I am a co-investigator and Executive Committee member for the recently funded NIH ‘Multiple Medical Therapies for Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury – A Comparative Effectiveness Approach’ that will recrui...
• Dr Elizabeth Warburton
  Research interests are as follows 1. Molecular imaging of atheroma - particularly carotid plaque imaging using PET/CT and MRI techniques. Both Clinical and microPET imaging. Proof of principle trials of novel atheroma drugs with imaging biomarker...
• Dr Paul Wilkinson
  Until December 2020, Paul Wilkinson is University Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His main research interests are the epidemiology and treatment of self-harm and depressi...
• Dr Ian Wilkinson
  My research is clinically orientated and centres on the physiology and pharmacology of the cardiovascular system, and particularly the large arteries and endothelial function. As a clinical pharmacologist, I combine detailed physiological measure...
• Professor Guy Williams
  Our group’s research interests lie broadly in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). This phenomenon allows data to be collected noninvasively on both the structure and function of the human brain. We research novel acquisition methods to provide contr...
• Dr Caroline Williams-Gray MRCP PhD
  My research aims to better define the clinical heterogeneity of Parkinson’s disease and to understand the neurobiological basis of this, with the ultimate goal of developing more targeted therapeutic strategies for different PD subtypes. Using epi...
• Professor Patrick Yu-Wai-Man PhD, FRCPath, FRCOphth
  I am an academic neuro-ophthalmologist with a major research interest in optic neuropathies, neurogenetics and mitochondrial eye diseases. I hold joint clinical appointments at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and Moorfields Eye Hospital in Lon...
• Dr Shahid Zaman
  The main theme of our research is to understand the role of amyloid, tau, inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction in the genesis of cognitive impairment and dementia in people with Down's syndrome.
• Dr Rashid Zaman FRCPsych
  I am a psychiatrist and researcher interested in collaborative and translational research in number of psychiatric disorders, including, ADHD, Bipolar Affective Disorder, Depression, OCD and Schizophrenia. I am also intersted in neuromodulation t...