Neurological diseases are associated with devastating morbidity and mortality and impose a significant economic burden on the healthcare system.

The aim of our neurological diseases theme is to use experimental medicine approaches to discover novel treatments for patients, through rapid translation of world class basic and discovery science at UCL into therapies at UCLH and associated hospitals.

We focus on four disease areas: neurodegenerative diseases; epilepsy; stroke; and neuro-oncology. These research areas are underpinned by platforms for neuroimaging; cerebrospinal fluid and blood biomarkers; computational neuroscience; and the development and evaluation of novel therapies in partnership with the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre (LWENC) at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, which focuses on neurodegeneration, in particular therapies for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

For many diseases, advances in treatments over the last decade have been incremental. This limitation is despite our rapidly increasing understanding of the fundamental biology of the nervous system – an area of research in which UCL is world-leading.  

Our mission is to improve the health of patients with neurological diseases.  

The time is now ripe to translate these spheres of knowledge and scientific breakthroughs into the clinical realm to improve the health of patients with neurological diseases.

We partner with the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, the UK's largest dedicated neurological/neurosurgical hospital, which serves the whole UK, including diverse populations in London and nationally.

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery map

Our strategy is to drive innovation in prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of neurological diseases, by establishing and integrating 7 world-leading, multi-disciplinary clinical-academic centres:

  1. Motor Neuron Disease-Frontotemporal Degeneration
  2. Epilepsy
  3. Movement Disorders and Neurodegeneration
  4. Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroinflammatory Diseases
  5. Neuromuscular diseases
  6. Neuro-oncology
  7. Stroke and Rehabilitation

We will expand research capacity, by not only attracting and training the best researchers, focusing on early career researchers (leveraging funding for personal fellowships/grants), but also supporting talented allied health professionals, expanding our mentorship scheme to support investigators in regions under-served by research, and promoting an inclusive and diverse theme/sub-theme panel (60% female, 40% ethnic minority and 30% early career researchers). 

 We promote the interaction between neurobiology and clinical science and forge collaborations with other UCLH BRC Themes (Healthcare Informatics, Engineering, Dementia, Deafness & Hearing, Mental Health, and Obesity), BRC PPI core, and BRC CRF. 

Each centre will deliver in three critical areas: 

  • Neuro-Therapeutics Subtheme
  • Technologies and Diagnostics Subtheme
  • Data Science Subtheme
Profile photo of Prof Olga Ciccarelli
Translational Neuroscience Theme Director
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Operations Manager, Translational Neuroscience, Dementia, Mental Health and Hearing Health