Dr Clare Wood-Allum BA BM BS MRCP PhD
Clinical Lecturer in Neurology
University of Sheffield
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health
Department of Neuroscience
Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience
385a Glossop Road
Sheffield
United Kingdom, S10 2HQ
Telephone: +44 (0)114 22 22268 (Bleep 057)
Fax: +44 (0)114 22 22290
Email: c.wood-allum@sheffield.ac.uk
Secretary: Rebecca Brown
Tel: 0114 22 22261
Email:rebecca.brown@sheffield.ac.uk
Biography:
I graduated with first class honours (Natural Sciences, Part II Neurophysiology) from St John´s College, Cambridge in 1989. After a short period in scientific publishing I gained a place at Trinity College, Oxford to study Medicine. I graduated in 1997 and did junior medical jobs in Northampton, Oxford, Nottingham, & Cambridge.
I was awarded the MRCP (London) in 2000 and was appointed Sheila Essey Clinical Research Fellow in MND at the Academic Neurology Unit, University of Sheffield in 2001. I was awarded a Wellcome Research Training Fellowship in 2002 and completed my PhD in 2006. I was appointed Clinical Lecturer in Neurology in 2006, a post which allows me to continue my research into MND whilst completing my clinical training as a neurologist.
Research Interests:
My main research interest is the role played by mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of MND and in particular whether mitochondrial anti-oxidant defence is defective in the disease. I was awarded an MNDA Prize PhD Studentship in 2007 which allowed me to recruit a PhD student to address this question.
I am also developing an interest in what clinical aspects of MND can tell us about the underlying biology of the disorder. I have just completed a study looking into whether MND can be shown preferentially to begin first in the dominant upper limb in MND, work that addresses as yet unproven exercise hypothesis of MND.
Teaching Interests:
I teach neurology at the bedside to medical students and lecture on Motor Neurone Disease to medical students and speech & language undergraduates. I lecture on proteomics for the MSc in Molecular Medicine.
Professional Activities
I have served as a peer reviewer for Brain, The ALS Journal and Innovait and reviewed grant proposals for the NIHR and the MNDA.
Current Projects
• Mitochondrial redox dysfunction – a therapeutic role for the peroxiredoxins?
• Congruent handedness and side of onset in UL-onset ALS. Evidence in favour of the exercise hypothesis?
Key Publications:
Wood-Allum, CA, Shaw, PJ. Motor Neurone Disease – a practical update on diagnosis and management. Clinical Medicine 10: 252-258, 2010.
Wood-Allum, CA, Barber SC, Kirby J, Heath P, Holden H, Allen S, Beaujeux T, Alexson SEH, Ince PG, Shaw PJ. Impairment of mitochondrial anti-oxidant defence in SOD1-related motor neuron injury and amelioration by ebselen. Brain 129 (7) 1693-709, 2006.
CA Wood-Allum, PJ Shaw. Mitochondrial dysfunction in ALS/MND. In: Blue Books of Practical Neurology, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Eds PJ Shaw, M Strong. Butterworth Heinemann, New York, 2003. pp 285-313.