Chairs & Speakers

Masud Husain is the editor of the BRAIN journal and a guarantor of Guarantors of Brain. He is Professor of Neurology & Cognitive Neuroscience at University of Oxford. His research focuses on brain mechanisms involved in directing attention, retaining memories and driving motivation. We study how attention, memory and motivation work in healthy people and how they break down in patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke and vascular dementia.

Darren G. Monckton obtained a BSc in biochemistry from the University of Bath (1989) and a PhD in human genetics from the University of Leicester (1992). He did postdoctoral research in Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he was the Muscular Dystrophy Association Sammy Davies Junior Neuromuscular Disease Research Fellow. In 1996 he took up a lectureship in genetics at the University of Glasgow, where he was also the recipient of a Lister Institute Research Fellowship. He is currently Professor of Human Genetics and teaches genetics on a range of courses (College Teaching Excellence Award, 2018), and leads an active research team investigating the basis and consequences of genetic instability in human disease. In particular, his team are defining the role of DNA repair and somatic expansion of the CTG•CAG as a major driver of pathology in myotonic dystrophy and Huntington disease, and as a novel therapeutic target. He has presented more than 260 invited seminars and lectures, including the Genetics Society Balfour Lecture (1999) and the Tenovus Medal Lecture (2008), and many to patient support groups (Muscular Dystrophy Campaign Science Communication Award 2012). He is a scientific advisor to the Myotonic Dystrophy Support Group (UK), the European Dystrophia Myotonica Association, and the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (USA), and has received the Muscular Dystrophy UK Scientist of the Year (2017), Huntington Disease Society of America Research Award (2019) and the Steinert Basic Science Award of the International Myotonic Dystrophy Consortium (2024).

Dr Huiling Tan is the Professor of Human Electrophysiology and Neuromodulation and a program leader at the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit at the University of Oxford. Originally trained in control engineering and signal processing at the Beijing University of Astronautics and Aeronautics, China, Dr Tan completed her D.Phil in Engineering Sciences at the University of Oxford, UK in 2006. Driven by intense curiosity on human mind and behaviour, she also studied Psychology as a second degree with The Open University and was awarded B.Sc. in Psychology with Honours (1st class). Professor Tan's current research focuses on interfacing with the brain for state-dependent closed-loop neuromodulation, with the overarching hypothesis that electrical stimulation that is more specifically focussed on underlying brain circuit pathophysiology is more effective and entails fewer side-effects than conventional continuous stimulation. Her research has significantly advanced our understanding of how abnormal brain activity leads to the debilitating symptoms of movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Leveraging this deep understanding, Professor Tan and her research group are actively designing and testing innovative closed-loop approaches for therapeutic brain stimulation. Their work focuses on real-time recording and interpretation of brain signals with high spatial and temporal resolution. This information serves as crucial feedback to guide brain stimulation, potentially offering a new therapeutic avenue for neuropsychiatric disorders. Along her research, Professor Tan is committed to creating and maintaining an open, fair, supportive and motivating environment for her group, and to supporting other young scientists in their career development.

Sanjay Manohar is an Associate Professor at Oxford and works on computational neurology, applying mathematical and neural network models of cognition to understand brain disorders. Sanjay studied at Cambridge, was an academic clinical fellow at Imperial, a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training Fellow at UCL, then an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow. His lab focuses on memory and motivation, studying the fronto-striatal system and the role of dopamine. To test neural models, he applies fMRI, MEG, eye tracking and pharmacology across patient groups including Parkinson's disease, focal frontal lesions and dementias.

Mie Rizig is a clinical senior research fellow at the UCL Queen square Institute of Neurology, London, UK and a Neurology specialist registrar at Imperial NHS trust, London, UK. Her research focuses on investigating the clinical and genetic diversity of neurodegeneration in African and African admixed populations. Mie leads several pan-African initiatives related to neurodegeneration, including the International Parkinson’s Disease Genomic Consortium Africa (IPDGC Africa), the African Research Consortium on Huntington's Disease (ARCH), and the North African Dementia Registry (NADR), among others. Additionally, she is collaborating with the Diverse Data Initiative at Genomic England (GEL) to develop resources for genetic studies on Parkinson's Disease (PD) in individuals of Black and Black admixed ancestries in the UK. Mie studied medicine at the University of Khartoum in Sudan and completed her general medical training at various teaching hospitals in London. She is a member of the Royal College of Physicians in London and holds a diploma in clinical neurology from the UCL Queen square Institute of Neurology, as well as a master’s degree and a PhD in molecular genetics from University College London (UCL). Mie’s research is funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2), UCL Grand Challenges, the Medical Research Council (MRC), and the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC).

John F. Cryan is Professor & Chair, Dept. of Anatomy & Neuroscience, University College Cork and was appointed Vice President for Research & Innovation in 2021. With over 650 peer-reviewed articles his research is focused on understanding the interaction between brain, gut, and microbiome at key time-windows across the lifespan . He is a Senior Editor of Neuropharmacology and of Neurobiology of Stress and is on the editorial board of a further 10 journals. He has co-edited four books and is co-author of the bestselling “The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection”. He has received numerous awards including from European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), European Behavioural Pharmacology Society(EBPS), British Association of Pharmacology, Physiological Society, American Gastroenterology Association, Neuroscience Ireland, The Neonatal Society and FASEB. He was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Antwerp in 2018 and will be a Hagler Fellow at Texas A&M University from 2025. He has been on the Highly Cited Researcher list in 2014 and from 2017 to the present; a TEDMED & TEDx Speaker; Past-President of EBPS and is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

David Attwell did a BSc in Physics and a PhD on neuronal and cardiac electrophysiology in Oxford, before spending 2 years in Berkeley studying the retina. He then moved to University College London. He has studied glial cells, glutamate transporters, stroke, the myelin formation by oligodendrocytes, how neuronal computation is powered and the control of cerebral, cardiac and renal blood flow. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001, and was a Highly Cited Scientist (in the top 0.1% of scientists) from 2019-2022. He is currently President of the UK Physiological Society.

Professor Tara Spires-Jones, DPhil(Oxon), FMedSci is the Personal Chair of Neurodegeneration and Director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the mechanisms and reversibility of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, other degenerative brain diseases, and ageing.  Working with a vibrant group of researchers, she is trying to understand why synapses and neurons become dysfunctional and degenerate. Her work has shown that soluble forms of the pathological proteins amyloid beta and tau contribute to synapse and neuron degeneration. Further, her group has discovered that pathological forms of tau spread through the brain via synaptic connections. Tara Spires-Jones has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers which have been cited over 20,000 times.  Prof Spires-Jones trained in Biochemistry and French at the University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate and earned a masters and DPhil from the University of Oxford supervised by Prof Sir Colin Blakemore. She then moved to Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School for postdoctoral training with Prof Bradley Hyman where she stayed and started a group as Instructor then and Assistant Professor.  In 2013 she moved to the University of Edinburgh as Reader and Chancellor’s Fellow and has won prestigious funding including a European Research Council Consolidator Award and a position as a UK Dementia Research Institute Group Leader. In addition to her research, Prof Spires-Jones is passionate about communicating scientific findings to the public and policy makers; increasing the rigour and reproducibility in translational neuroscience; promoting inclusivity and diversity in science; and supporting career development of neuroscientists.  She is President of the British Neuroscience Association (2023-2025), and is founding editor of the translational neuroscience journal Brain Communications. She was also a founding member of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence, which works to promote the future of European Neuroscience. In 2024, Prof Spires-Jones was elected a fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.

Prof Neil Harrison leads the Immunopsychiatry Research Group at Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC). Prior to moving to Cardiff, he spent 10 years in Sussex where he established the first UK Clinical Immunopsychiatry Service providing bespoke treatments for people with inflammation-associated depression. He completed his PhD in Neuroscience at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging (UCL) and undertook training in psychiatry and neurology at the Maudsley Hospital, National Hospital for Neurology, and National Society for Epilepsy. His work using an experimental medicine approach combining experimental pro- and anti-inflammatory challenges with diverse brain imaging techniques has been influential in revealing how the body's immune system acts on the brain to disrupt mood, motivation and cognition. It has contributed to the emergence of Immunopsychiatry and hopefully brought us closer to the ultimate goal of developing new immune-targeted therapies for depression. He is a past President of the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society, co-editor of the Textbook of Immunopsychiatry (Cambridge University Press) and currently sits on the MRC Neuroscience and Mental Health Board.

Dr Maura Malpetti is a Race Against Dementia Alzheimer’s Research UK Fellow and a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge, and an Emerging Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute. She originally trained in Italy and after obtaining her PhD in Clinical Neurosciences in Cambridge, she further trained as a visiting researcher at the University of California San Francisco, and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Her research focusses on in vivo biomarkers for inflammation, tau and synaptic loss to investigate the pathophysiology of primary tauopathies, frontotemporal dementia, and related disorders. To this end, her lab integrates PET imaging and clinical data with fluid markers and post-mortem pathology to identify and validate early diagnostic and prognostic markers that can inform the design of new disease-modifying treatment strategies.

Angela Vincent, a former Guarantor for Guarantors of Brain, is Emeritus Professor of Neuroimmunology at the University of Oxford and has affiliation with the University of London. She is medically qualified and has an MSc in Biochemistry. She was an Honorary Consultant in Immunology and led the Oxford Neuroimmunology Service for 25 years until 2016. She was President of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (2001-2004), Head of Department of Clinical Neurology (2005-2008) and an associate editor of Brain (2004-2013). Although not a neurologist, she received the Association of British Neurologists medal (2009), the WFN Medal for scientific contributions to neurology (2017, Kyoto), and the American Epilepsy Society Clinical Science award (2019 with Prof J Dalmau). Interests include clinical and serological studies on patients with neuromuscular junction disorders (myasthenia, MuSK-myasthenia, neuromyotonia) and acquired disorders of the CNS associated with antibodies to receptors, ion channels and associated proteins (eg. LGI1 and CASPR2, AQP4, MOG, NMDA and glycine receptors). She pioneered the idea that maternal antibodies to fetal-specific proteins could cause developmental disorders and has recently extended this work to maternal antibodies to CNS proteins that could be involved in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Prof Nicholas Wood, a guarantor of Guarantors of Brain, is a clinician scientist who specialises in understanding the genetic bases of neurological disease. He was promoted a personal chair in Clinical neurology and neurogenetics in 2001 and the established chair of Genetics (formerly Galton chair) at UCL in 2009. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Science in 2004 and to senior investigator of the NIHR in 2008 (now emeritus). He was elected fellow of the American Neurological Association in 2012.

Viorica is a fellow of Guarantors of Brain. She is a clinical academic at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, specialises in translational work in neurodegeneration and rare diseases. With expertise in genomics and biomarkers, she focuses on improving patient care by bridging research with practical applications. Her previous research led to the discovery of new disease-causing genes and elucidated disease-mechanisms, and treatment pathways. She has established a unique research infrastructure, including the UK HSP Biobank, UK MSA Network and Biobank, to advance understanding of molecular pathways in rare diseases.

Professor David Sharp is a guarantor for Guarantors of Brain. He is a neurologist and Centre Director of UK DRI Care Research & Technology, focusing on using technology to enhance the lives of people living with dementia. He is also Scientific Director of the Imperial College Clinical Imaging Facility and Associate Director of the Imperial Centre for Injury Studies. His research programme aims to improve clinical outcomes after dementia and traumatic brain injury (TBI), focusing on common cognitive impairments in domains such as memory and attention. He uses cognitive neuroscience and advanced neuroimaging to investigate the effect of brain injury on brain network function and the effects of inflammation and neurodegeneration. His has explored how new treatments of cognitive impairment can be personalised and his current work focuses on harnessing neurotechnology development to improve the lives of those living with dementia and the effects of brain injury.

Laurent is a fellow of Guarantors of Brain. He obtained his MD from the University of Geneva and a PhD in neuroscience from the Lemanic Neuroscience Doctoral School. He trained in Clinical Neurology, including a specific training in EEG & Epileptology, as well as in Sleep Medicine, at the University Hospitals of Geneva. He obtained a competitive Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral grant for his post-doctoral fellowship, which he started in July 2022 at University College London.

Dr Manuela Marescotti is the Scientific Editor of Brain Communications. She is a neuroscientist by training. She obtained her Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, using fruit flies to study neurodegenerations.

Dr Emma Tallantyre is the secretary and treasurer of Guarantors of Brain. Her research interests centre on the outcomes of neuroinflammatory disease. She is involved in clinical trials that investigate the optimum treatment approaches in multiple sclerosis. Emma has an interest in combining real world clinical data with associated biological and imaging data to strengthen predictions of outcome and improve trial design. She is also interested in the involvement of patients and the public in the development of clinical research studies.

Lucia Li is a NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Neurology. Her subspecialty interest is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and her academic work is strongly influenced by my clinical practice in this area. Lucia's research uses multimodal methods to assess outcomes and treatments for the consequences of TBI, and she is particularly interested in brain-body interactions in TBI. Recent projects have included: combined brain stimulation-brain imaging techniques to investigate the potential for brain stimulation as a treatment for cognitive deficits after TBI, remote monitoring of recovery in older adult TBI using home passive sensors, and assessment of peripheral inflammatory cytokine response after TBI.

Mary Reilly is the current chair of the trustees and the Board of Management for Guarantors of Brain. She is Professor of Neurology at University College London. Her research interests are in inherited neuropathies encompassing gene identification, pathogenetic studies, natural history studies, outcome measures and clinical trials.