Editorial board

Secretary and treasurer

Dr Emma Tallantyre, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Wales

Advisory board

Claudio Bassetti, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

David Bennett, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 

Alexis Brice, ICM, Paris, France

Ben Carter, King’s College London, London, UK

Patrick Chinnery, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Anne Cross, Washington University, St Louis, USA

Glenda Halliday, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Oskar Hansson, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Henry Houlden, University College London, London, UK

Matilde Inglese, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

Jonathan Kipnis, Washington University, St Louis, USA

Paul Matthews, Imperial College, London, UK

Alexandre Prat, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

Rosa Rademakers, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

Anne Rosser, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Catherine Schevon, Columbia University, New York, USA

Melissa Spencer, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA

Dietmar Thal, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 

Former Editors

John Bucknill, James Crichton-Browne, David Ferrier and John Hughlings Jackson (1878)

Armand de Watteville (1884)

Robert Percy Smith (1901)

Henry Head (1905)

Gordon Holmes (1923)

Francis Walshe (1938)

Russell Brain (1954)

Denis Williams (1967)

Charles Phillips (1975)

Peter Thomas (1982)

Ian McDonald (1991)

John Newsom-Davis (1997)

Alastair Compston (2004)

Dimitri Kullmann (2014)

Biographies and Specialisms

Masud Husain

Masud Husain is Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. He leads the Neurological Conditions theme of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and is Professorial Fellow at New College, Oxford.

After obtaining his DPhil, Masud went on to postdoctoral work at MIT before returning to complete clinical training at Oxford. He was Reader at Imperial College London and then Professor of Neurology at University College London. At UCL he led the Dept Brain Repair and Rehabilitation and was Deputy Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.

His current research focuses on mechanisms underlying motivation and memory in patients with neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular small vessel disease.

Messoud Ashina

Messoud Ashina is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and leads the Human Migraine Research Unit at the Danish Headache Center, Rigshospitalet. He is also the Director of the Danish Knowledge Center on Headache Disorders and the current President of the International Headache Society.

His academic works focus on the disease mechanisms underlying migraine and other headache disorders. His lab has played a key role in the development and refinement of human provocation models that can be used to map signaling pathways underlying migraine pathogenesis and to identify novel drug targets. In these provocation models, signaling molecules or other hypothesized ‘trigger’ agents are used to induce migraine attacks in people with migraine, whereas healthy volunteers most often develop no more than a mild headache. His lab has also combined the use of provocation models with functional neuroimaging to better study the involvement of cranial vasculature and trigeminal pain pathways in migraine pathogenesis.

Ammar Al-Chalabi

Ammar Al-Chalabi is Professor of Neurology and Complex Disease Genetics at King’s College London, and Head of the Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience. He is Director of the King’s Motor Neuron Disease Care and Research Centre and co-leads the Psychosis and Neuropsychiatry theme of the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre.

After obtaining his PhD, Ammar went on to postdoctoral work at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital before returning as a consultant neurologist at King’s College Hospital. His current research focuses on understanding genetic, environmental and other risk factors for ALS (motor neuron disease), how these factors relate to clinical presentation, and how to use this to improve clinical trial delivery. His laboratory has made four key advances in ALS. These are: multiple pioneering genetic studies identifying an ALS locus on chromosome 9, leading directly to the discovery of C9orf72 expansion mutation in ALS with the first gene therapy trials underway; development of the multistep model of ALS, demonstrating ALS is a 6-step process and that genes can account for up to four steps; development of a clinical staging system for ALS, now part of international ALS clinical trials guidelines, FDA guidelines, and used as an end point in academic and commercial trials; and the first identification of retrovirus involvement in ALS, with antiretroviral therapies now in clinical trials.

He is the recipient of multiple international awards, including the Charcot Young Investigator Award 1999, Sheila Essey Award for ALS Research 2016, Forbes Norris Award for Compassionate Care in ALS 2020 and AMG Healey Award for Innovation in ALS 2020.

Alasdair Coles

Alasdair Coles is Professor of Neuroimmunology at the University of Cambridge. His research is on treatments for multiple sclerosis, at first on anti-inflammatory treatments (especially alemtuzumab) and now on experimental reparative therapies. He also leads a trial of immunotherapy in autoantibody-associated psychosis. His clinical practice is in multiple sclerosis and other neuroimmunological diseases. He has a side-interest in how neurological diseases affect spirituality.

Britta Eickholt

Britta Eickholt is Professor for ‘Molecular Biology and Biochemistry’ at the Charité   – University Medicine Berlin. After a PhD in Biochemistry from Guy’s Hospital/King’s College London, she carried out a postdoc at the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Biology, where she also started her own laboratory in 2001. The research in the Eickholt lab broadly focuses on the cellular mechanism controlling the development, maturation and maintenance of neurons and astrocytes in the brain. Her lab uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand how neurons and astrocyte establish and modify their complex shapes in the healthy brain and during disease or injury. Her main expertise centers on spatial and temporal control of signaling events and cytoskeleton dynamics. 

Denise C. Fitzgerald

Denise Fitzgerald, PhD is Professor of Neuroimmunology at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Science at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. Denise completed her PhD in immunology under the mentorship of Prof. Alan Baird in University College Dublin in 2004. During this time Denise developed a keen interest in demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system and moved to the Dept. of Neurology in Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, to pursue postdoctoral training in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research. During her postdoctoral training she focused on neuroimmunology examining both inflammatory and immunomodulatory mechanisms in CNS demyelination. In 2009, Denise set up her independent lab at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). The central goal of her group’s research is to identify new strategies to treat MS and other inflammatory and demyelinating disorders. Her group are particularly interested in the process of myelin regeneration (remyelination) and aim to identify novel therapeutic strategies to promote remyelination in the CNS. To do this, her group have established a Regenerative Neuroimmunology research programme to uncover new knowledge of how the immune system influences tissue regeneration in the CNS.

Tom Foltynie

Professor Tom Foltynie is Professor of Neurology in the Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology and Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London. He is responsible for movement disorder patients, particularly Parkinson’s disease patients undergoing advanced treatments such as deep brain stimulation, apomorphine and duodopa. He  is chief investigator for a series of trials of Exenatide, a potential neurorestorative treatment for Parkinson’s disease, as well as the lead clinician at UCL for trials of α-synuclein antibody treatment for Parkinson’s disease and Oxford Biomedica/Axovant’s gene therapy product for Parkinson’s disease, and has published clinical trials of deep brain stimulation as a treatment for the cognitive problems associated with advanced Parkinson’s disease/DLB, as well as successful results of a trial of deep brain stimulation for the treatment of patients with severe Tourette syndrome.  

Rita Horvath

Rita Horvath is a clinical academic who was trained as a neurologist in Budapest, Hungary and completed her PhD in mitochondrial disease in 2000. She continued doing research in mitochondrial diseases following her PhD in Munich, Germany and in 2007 was appointed as Lecturer in the Mitochondrial Research Group at Newcastle University (UK). She established her research group to study mitochondrial translation deficiencies and developed a new service for patients with inherited peripheral neuropathies (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, CMT).  In 2018 she took on a new post as Director of Research (Clinical) in Rare Neurogenetic Diseases at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge. The focus of her research is to identify key molecular disease mechanisms with the aim of developing treatments for patients with rare inherited neurological conditions, such as mitochondrial disease and CMT.

Sarosh Irani

Sarosh Irani leads the Oxford Autoimmune Neurology Group, as a clinician scientist with expertise in the field of autoantibody-mediated diseases of the nervous system. He undertook clinical training in Oxford and London, with a DPhil in Oxford and Fulbright-funded postdoctoral position in UCSF. He runs the UK’s major clinic for antibody-mediated CNS diseases.

He has made several clinical observations including the recognition of faciobrachial dystonic seizures and identification of distinctive psychopathological features associated with forms of autoimmune encephalitis. In the laboratory, he led the discovery of the key neuronal autoantibodies, LGI1 and CASPR2, their associated HLA associations and is actively exploring the role of B cells and patient-derived monoclonal antibodies in the pathogenesis of autoimmune forms of encephalitis and demyelination.

He has been awarded the Graham-Bull Prize in Clinical Science/Goulstonian Lectureship from the Royal College of Physicians, a MRC Senior Clinical Fellowship and Oxford Biomedical Research centre Senior Clinical Fellowship to continue explore the immunobiology and neuroscience which underlie the autoimmune neurological diseases.

Brian Litt, M.D.

Brian Litt, M.D., is Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He divides his time equally between the Schools of Medicine and Engineering, Directing the Penn Epilepsy Center, Penn’s Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics and a cross-campus medical technology initiative, Penn Health-Tech. Dr Litt is a neurologist who treats patients with epilepsy. His research focuses on NeuroEngineering: materials, hardware, imaging, algorithms, data science, machine learning, and high-speed computing for neural interfaces and devices. His laboratory translates basic science into new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, with a focus on epilepsy and other brain network disorders. Dr Litt works on international collaborations for data sharing, reproducibility and training under-represented groups in STEM and neuro-related fields. He also specializes in translating health technologies to industry, and its interface with academia. He holds a substantial portfolio of patents, has contributed to and co-founded several device companies.

Giovanna Mallucci

Prof. Giovanna Mallucci is a founding Principal Investigator of Altos Labs, Cambridge Institute. Previously she was van Geest Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Center Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. Following her discovery of the reversibility of early neurodegeneration, her lab pioneered the understanding of the role of the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) in neurodegenerative diseases and its therapeutic manipulation for neuroprotection, including discovering repurposable drugs ready for clinical trials. Her interest in neuroprotection led to the discovery of ‘hibernation’ proteins in synapse regeneration that can be targeted therapeutically. She is Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and received the 2021 Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders. She is a practicing neurologist, specialized in dementia.

Avindra Nath

Avindra (Avi) Nath is the Clinical Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he is also Chief of the Section of Infections of the Nervous System, Director of the Translational Center for Neurological Sciences, and Director of the Neuroimmunology and Neurovirology Fellowship Program.

He is a physician–scientist who specializes in the field of neuro-immunology and neurovirology. His research is focused on emerging neurological infections with a focus on HIV infection. In recent years, he has studied the neurological complications and pathogenesis of endogenous retroviruses, Ebola, Zika virus and SARS-CoV-2. He serves on advisory committees to the NIH, CDC, FDA and WHO. The International Society of NeuroVirology gave him the Pioneer in NeuroVirology Award for his contributions to HIV research and elected him as the President of the Society. He received the Wybran award from the Society of Neuroimmune Pharmacology for contributions to Neurovirology. He also received the NIH Director’s award and the Health and Human Services Secretary’s award for his work on Ebola infection.

Avi received his medical degree from Christian Medical College in Ludhiana India, and completed a residency in neurology from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, followed by a fellowship in multiple sclerosis and neurovirology at the same institution. He then completed a fellowship in neuro-AIDS at NINDS. Having held faculty positions at the University of Manitoba and the University of Kentucky, he joined Johns Hopkins University in 2002 as Professor of Neurology and Director of the Division of Neuroimmunology and Neurological Infections. He joined NIH in 2011.

Dorothee Saur

Dorothee Saur is Professor of Neurology and Deputy Director of the Department of Neurology at the University of Leipzig, Germany. She leads the Language and Aphasia Laboratory and Dementia Outpatient Clinic.

She trained in medicine in Jena, Germany and neurology in Hamburg and Freiburg, Germany. After a post-doctoral fellowship at Northwestern University, Chicago, she completed neurology training in Leipzig.

Her current research focuses on mechanisms underlying language recovery in patients with stroke, but also includes other topics of cognitive neurology and neuroimaging.

David Sharp

Professor David Sharp is a neurologist and Centre Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute. He leads the Care Research and Technology Centre, which focuses 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. 

Tara Spires-Jones

Tara Spires-Jones is Professor of Neurodegeneration at the University of Edinburgh where she is Deputy Director of the Centre for Brain Sciences and a UK Dementia Research Institute Fellow. Tara is Editor-in-Chief of Brain Communications. 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 die in these diseases in order to develop effective therapeutic strategies. Her work has shown that soluble forms of the pathological proteins amyloid-β and tau contribute to synapse degeneration, and that lowering levels of these proteins can prevent and reverse phenotypes in model systems. Further, she has pioneered high-resolution imaging techniques in human post-mortem brain and found evidence that these proteins accumulate in synapses in human disease. Tara Spires-Jones has published over 100 peer reviewed papers which have been cited over 10 000 times.

Prior to moving to Scotland in 2013, Tara ran a group studying Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis with an emphasis on synaptic pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, where she was Instructor from 2006–2011 and Assistant Professor from 2011–2013. She completed graduate training (MSc and DPhil) at the University of Oxford from 1999–2003, and undergraduate training at the University of Texas at Austin from 1994–1999.

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 a founding member of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence, which works to promote the future of European Neuroscience.

Bryan J. Traynor

Bryan J. Traynor is a neurologist and Senior Investigator at the National Institute on Aging, and adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University and Queen Square Institute of Neurology, UCL. He is best known for his work to understand the genetic aetiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). He led the international consortium that identified pathogenic repeat expansions in C9orf72 as a common cause of ALS and FTD. Other genes discovered by his laboratory as causes of ALS and FTD include VCP, MATR3, KIF5A, HTT, and SPTLC1. His principal interests are in ALS, FTD, myasthenia gravis, and genomics.

Wiesje van der Flier

Wiesje van der Flier (1975) is full professor and scientific director of Alzheimer Center Amsterdam at Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands, where she has worked since 2004. She studied neuropsychology at the University of Utrecht and is also a clinical epidemiologist. She leads the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort, an ongoing memory-clinic based cohort including over 7000 patients with deep phenotyping (MRI, EEG, CSF biomarkers, and PET) and linked biobank (blood, DNA, CSF). The Amsterdam Dementia Cohort is at the basis of many of the studies performed at the VUmc Alzheimer center. Van der Flier's main research areas are looking for the origin of AD, diagnosis and prognosis, and intervention and prevention. Van der Flier leads ABOARD (A Personalized Medicine Approach for Alzheimer’s Disease), a Dutch public-private partnership of than 30 partners. Together with colleague Philip Scheltens, she has written a book, het Alzheimermysterie, which was published by the Arbeiderspers.