The University of Sheffield
Department of Neuroscience

Dr Robin Highley DPhil, FRCPath

Robin Highley

Senior Clinical Lecturer in Neuropathology

Department of Neuroscience
Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience
University of Sheffield
Room B28
385a Glossop Road
Sheffield
S10 2HQ

Telephone: +44 (0) 114 22244
Fax: +44 (0)114 2222290
Email: robin.highley@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography

I graduated in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford in 1993 and subsequently completed a DPhil in Oxford studying the neuropathology of Schizophrenia from which I completed in 1997. I then trained in medicine at the University of Birmingham from 1997-2002. Following this, I moved to Sheffield, to train in neuropathology, gaining the European Fellowship of Neuropathology in 2008 and FRCPath in 2009. On completing this training in 2009, I took up a MRC/Motor Neurone Disease Association Fellowship to study Motor neurone disease. I became a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Neuropathology in 2012. I also work as a Consultant Neuropathologist for the Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Trust.

Research Interests

I am interested in the neuropathology and pathophysiology of neurodegeneration, in particular motor neurone disease (MND). I use standard neuropathological techniques to characterise post mortem tissue kindly donated by individuals with MND and to highlight contrasts with tissue from people who did not have MND. These methods are used to study genes of interest and the pathological effects of gene mutations known to cause MND.

I have a particular interest in RNA biology, using gene chips, PCR and in situ hybridisation in order to investigate this in both post mortem tissue as well as animal and cell models of disease.

Teaching Interests

I teach neuropathology and neuroanatomy to medical students as well as orthoptics students and postgraduate psychiatry trainees.

Current Projects

1. RNA splicing and TDP-43 pathology
2. The pathobiology and neuropathology of C9ORF72-mediated MND
3. Oligodendrocyte disease and function in MND

Key Publications

  1. Kirby J*, Highley JR*, Cox L, Goodall EF, Hewitt C, Hartley JA, Hollinger, HC, Fox M, Ince PG, McDermott CJ, Shaw PJ. Lack of unique neuropathology in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis associated with p.K54E angiogenin (ANG) mutation. Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology (in press).
  2. Ismail A, Cooper-Knock J, Highley JR, Milano A, Kirby J, Lowe J, Constantinescu CS, Walters SJ, Price S, McDermott CJ, Sawcer S, Compston DAS, Sharrack B, Shaw PJ. Concurrence of multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in patients with hexanucleotide repeat expansions of C9ORF72. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2013;84(1):79-87.
  3. Cooper-Knock J*, Hewitt C*, Highley JR*, Brockington A, Milano A, Man S, Martindale J, Hartley J, Walsh T, Gelsthorpe C, Baxter L, Forster G, Fox M, Bury J, Mok K, McDermott CJ, Traynor BJ, Kirby J, Wharton SB, Ince PG, Hardy J, Shaw P. Clinico-pathological features in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with expansions in C9ORF72. Brain. 2012;135(3):751-764. *Joint first authors.
  4. Ince PG, Highley JR, Kirby J, Wharton SB, Takahashi H, Strong MJ, Shaw PJ. Molecular pathology and genetic advances in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: an emerging molecular pathway and the significance of glial pathology. Acta Neuropathol. 2011; 122(6):657-671.