People

Our talented scientists at the Neuroscience Institute are united under one goal – to unlock the mysteries of the nervous system and halt, prevent or reverse neurological conditions that can have debilitating effects on patients and their families. Get in touch to collaborate or find out more.

Director

Professor Dame Pamela Shaw
Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Professor of Neurology and Consultant Neurologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, and the Director of the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre

Professor Dame Pamela Shaw

Professor of Neurology

Neurodegeneration, motor neurone disease, improvement of patient care, gene therapy, drug development, screening methodology, clinical trials, genetics of motor neurone disease

Contact Professor Shaw

Research theme leads

Translational Neuroscience

Theme lead: Professor Oliver Bandmann, Professor of Movement Disorders Neurology

Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Wilson disease, dystonia, mitochondrial dysfunction, mitochondrial biomarkers

Contact Professor Bandmann


Theme co-lead: Professor Robert Perneczky, Professor of Translational Dementia Research 

Alzheimer’s Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, fluid biomarkers, neuroimaging, dementia prevention, early diagnosis, disease-modifying treatments

Contact Professor Perneczky

Sensory and Developmental

Theme lead: Professor Walter Marcotti, Professor of Sensory Neuroscience, Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator

Development and function of mammalian cochlear hair cells

Contact Professor Marcotti


Theme Co-lead: Professor Marysia Placzek, Professor in Developmental Neurobiology

Development of the hypothalamus; homeostasis in health and disease

Contact Professor Placzek

Cognitive and Mental Health

Theme leads: Professor Markus Reuber, Professor of Clinical Neurology

Non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD), psychosocial and neuropsychological aspects of epilepsy, doctor-patient communication

Contact Professor Reuber


Theme Co-lead: Dr Myles Jones, Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Non-invasive functional neuroimaging techniques, cerebral hemodynamics, imaging data, stimulus-evoked neural activity, “resting-state” neuroimaging data

Contact Dr Jones

Translational neuroscience

James Alix

Dr James Alix

Senior Clinical Lecturer in Neurophysiology

Diagnosis, disease monitoring, electrophysiological techniques, perinatal brain injury

Contact Dr Alix

Scott Allen

Dr Scott Allen

Lecturer in Neuroscience

Energy generation pathways of the CNS (central nervous system), metabolic pathway, metabolic response to cellular stress, metabolic response to ageing

Contact Dr Allen

Professor Oliver Bandmann

Professor Oliver Bandmann

Professor of Movement Disorders Neurology

Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Wilson disease, dystonia, mitochondrial dysfunction, mitochondrial biomarkers

Contact Professor Bandmann

Professor Ivana Barbaric

Professor of Stem Cell Biology

Mitochondrial-based diseases and disease modeling using human pluripotent stem cells, regenerative medicine approaches to degenerative diseases

Contact Dr Barbaric

Dr Daniel Blackburn

Senior Lecturer in Neurology

Post-stroke dementia, diagnostic tests, electroencephalography (EEG), conversation analysis

Contact Dr Blackburn

Daniel Bose

Dr Daniel Bose

Sir Henry Dale Research Fellow/Lecturer

Mechanisms of non-coding genetic mutations in ALS, RNA biology, epigenetics and chromatin modifications.

Contact Dr Bose

Beining Chen

Professor Beining Chen

Professor of Medicinal Chemistry

Use of computer aided molecular design and combinatorial chemistry to facilitate drug design and molecular recognition studies.

Contact Professor Chen

Dr Mark Collins

Dr Mark Collins

Senior Lecturer in Biological Mass Spectrometry

Neurodegeneration, motor neurone disease, neuroproteomics, clinical proteomics, mass spectrometry

Contact Dr Collins

John Cooper-Knock

Dr Johnathan Cooper-Knock

NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Neurology

Genetic variants of motor neurone disease, C9ORF72 gene, gene expression profiling, hybridisation technique

Contact Dr Cooper-Knock

Profile image of Suman De

Dr Suman De

SITraN fellow

Neurodegeneration, disease mechanism, protein aggregation and spread, development of biomarkers, super-resolution and single-molecule imaging

Contact Dr Suman De

Professor Kurt De Vos

Professor in Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience

Mechanisms of neuronal cell death, axonal transport, mitochondria and ER/mitochondria contacts, and protein homeostasis/autophagy

Contact Professor De Vos

Dr Mark Dickman

Professor Mark Dickman

Professor of Biological Mass Spectrometry

Mechanisms of gene expression, biomanufacturing and characterisation of therapeutics, proteomics, bioanalytics, post-translational modifications, mass spectrometry

Contact Professor Dickman

Laura Ferraiuolo

Professor Laura Ferraiuolo

Professor of Translational Neurobiology

Glia, gene therapy, interaction between astrocytes and oligodendrocytes

Contact Professor Ferraiuolo

Dr Andrew Grierson

Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience

Regulation of axonal transport, vertebrate models of neurodegeneration

Contact Dr Grierson

Dr Noémie Hamilton

Junior Fellow in Neuroinflammation

Neuroinflammation, Microglia, Zebrafish models of white matter disorders, MRI

Contact Dr Hamilton

Guillaume Hautbergue

Professor Guillaume Hautbergue

Professor of Translational RNA Biology

Gene expression, RNA biology, neurodegeneration, pathophysiology, therapeutic strategies, gene therapy.

Contact Dr Hautbergue

Dr Channa Hewamadduma

Consultant Neurologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer

Neuro genetics, clinical and cellular biomarker search in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, Phase II and III clinical trials Neuromuscular and motor neuronal disorders.

Contact Dr Hewamadduma - chewamadduma1@sheffield.ac.uk

Dr Robin Highley

Senior Clinical Lecturer in Neuropathology

Neuropathology and pathophysiology of neurodegeneration

Contact Dr Highley

Dr Esther Hobson

NIHR Lecturer in Neurology

Clinical care, telehealth, symptomatic excess saliva, patient experience

Contact Dr Hobson

Izzy Jayasinghe profile

Dr Izzy Jayasinghe

Senior Lecturer

Clinical super-resolution microscopy, calcium signalling, pain sensory neurons, nanoscale optical diagnostics

Contact Dr Jayasinghe

Sherif El-Khamisy profile image

Professor Sherif el Khamisy

Professor of Molecular Medicine

Mechanisms of DNA damage and repair

Contact Professor el Khamisy

Janine Kirby

Professor Janine Kirby

Professor of Neurogenetics

Genetics of motor neurone disease, gene expression profiling, pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegeneration

Contact Professor Kirby

Matthew Livesey profile

Dr Matthew Livesey

Research Fellow

Physiological dysfunction associated with neurological disease, electrophysiology, human stem cell technology, oligodendrocyte function

Contact Dr Livesey

Dr Jennifer MacRitchie

Senior Research Fellow

Dementia, music, skill acquisition

Contact Dr MacRitchie

Professor Arshad Majid

Professor of Cerebrovascular Neurology

Translational cerebrovascular disease, ischaemic preconditioning, large animal (ovine) models of stroke, clinical outcomes research, clinical trials, stroke epidemiology, translational bioengineering

Contact Professor Majid

Dr Matteo De Marco

Lecturer in Neuroscience of Dementia

Neuroimaging, cognitive functioning, Alzheimer's disease, normal ageing, cognitive stimulation, effect of genetic polymorphisms on neural structure and function, machine-learning diagnostic classification

Contact Dr De Marco

Professor Christopher McDermott

Professor Christopher McDermott

Professor of Translational Neurology

Improvement of patient care, mechanisms of neurodegeneration, motor neurone disease, hereditary spastic paraplegia

Contact Professor McDermott

Dr Alisdair McNeill

Senior Lecturer in Clinical Genetics (INSIGNEO)

Genetic cause of neurological disorders, phenotyping, clinical genetics testing

Contact Dr Alisdair McNeill

Richard Mead STAFF

Dr Richard Mead

Senior Lecturer in Translational Neuroscience

CNS drug discovery, preclinical models of neurodegeneration, translational biomarkers NRF2-ARE pathway, neuroinflammation.

Contact Dr Mead

Ivan Minev

Professor Ivan Minev

Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Bioelectronic interfaces, neural implants, electrode arrays, 3D printing, soft and conductive biomaterials

Contact Professor Minev

Dr Heather Mortiboys in lab

Professor Heather Mortiboys

Professor of Cellular Neuroscience and Metabolism

Mitochondrial function, DNA, morphology, recycling, Parkinson’s Disease

Contact Professor Mortiboys

Ke Ning

Dr Ke Ning

Senior Lecturer in Translational Neuroscience

Viral vector-mediated gene therapy, stem cell strategies, PTEN/PI3 Kinase pathway, in vitro and in vivo neuronal survival

Contact Dr Ning

profile photo Prof Robert Perneczky

Professor Robert Perneczky

Professor of Translational Dementia Research 

Alzheimer’s Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, fluid biomarkers, neuroimaging, dementia prevention, early diagnosis, disease-modifying treatments

Contact Professor Perneczky

Dr Jessica Redgrave

Consultant in Stroke Neurology

Carotid plaque instability, red blood cell membrane cholesterol, delays in seeking medical assistance for strokes and TIA

Contact Dr Redgrave

Professor Markus Reuber

Professor of Clinical Neurology

Non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD), psychosocial and neuropsychological aspects of epilepsy, doctor-patient communication

Contact Professor Reuber

Professor Ipsita Roy

Professor Ipsita Roy

Professor of Biomaterials

Natural Polymers of bacterial origin and their use in medical and environmentally friendly applications.

Contact Professor Roy

Dr Dinesh Selvarajah

Senior Clinical Lecturer in Diabetes

Advanced magnetic resonance neuroimaging in diabetic neuropathy. Central and peripheral biomarkers for peripheral neuropathy. Phase 2B and 3 clinical trials

Contact Dr Selvarajah

Dr Tatyana Shelkovnikova

MND Association Senior Non-Clinical Fellow

RNA metabolism in MND, RNA-protein complexes (granules) in MND, stress granules, paraspeckles, RNA-focussed drug discovery

Contact Dr Shelkovnikova

Julie Simpson profile

Dr Julie Simpson

Senior Lecturer in Neuropathology

Neuroinflammation, age-associated white matter pathology, immunohistological characterisation, gene expression profiling

Contact Dr Simpson

Dr Rosie Staniforth

Lecturer in Biochemistry

Molecular mechanism of amyloid formation, therapeutic intervention in Alzheimer's disease, Protein body formation in ALS, protein biochemistry, spectroscopy, structural biology

Contact Dr Staniforth

Su Li

Professor Li Su

Professor of Neuroimaging

Innovative and original computational methods and state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to understand, detect and develop treatments for neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Contact Professor Su

Anestis Tsakiridis

Dr Anestis Tsakiridis

Fellow in Stem Cell Biology

Spinal cord/peripheral nervous system development, in vitro differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells, disease modelling, cell replacement

Contact Dr Tsakiridis

Dr Alison Twelvetrees

Fellow in Neurobiology

Microtubule transport machinery, neuronal trafficking, mechanisms of neurodegeneration.

Contact Dr Twelvetrees

Ryan West profile

Dr Ryan West

SITraN Fellow, Alzheimer's Society Fellow

Drosophila models of Neurodegeneration, Frontotemporal Dementia, Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson's Disease

Contact Dr West

Professor Stephen Wharton

Professor of Neuropathology

Pathology of brain ageing, pathology of neurodegenerative disease, dementia, astrocytes, neurones and endothelium in the neurovascular unit, white matter pathology

Professor Wharton

Professor Stuart Wilson

Professor of Genetics

Fundamental mechanisms of human gene expression and their misregulation in disease.

Contact Professor Wilson

Dr Jonathan Wood

Lecturer in Neuroscience

Neuroinflammation, age-associated white matter pathology, immunohistological characterisation, gene expression profiling

Contact Dr Wood

Sensory and developmental neuroscience

Dr David Andrew

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Neural mechanisms underlying chronic pain

Contact Dr Andrew

Dr Simon Atkins

Senior Clinical Lecturer

Neuropathic pain, regeneration following nerve injury and repair

Contact Dr Atkins

Professor Fiona Boissonade

Professor of Neuroscience

Chronic pain, mechanisms of altered neuronal excitability, nerve regeneration

Contact Professor Boissonade

Ashley Cadby

Professor Ashley Cadby

Professor in Biological Physics

Development of optical microscopy to target specific biological problems

Contact Professor Cadby

Bioengineering Course Director, Dr Frederik Claeyssens, photo image

Prof Frederik Claeyssens

Reader in Biomaterials

Biomaterials and in vitro organ models and nerve regeneration

Contact Professor Claeyssens

Vincent Cunliffe profile photo

Dr Vincent Cunliffe

Senior Lecturer in Developmental Genetics

Development of the vertebrate nervous system; transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of neural cell fate; transcriptional and epigenetic responses to steroid hormone signalling in the zebrafish brain; anti-epileptic drug discovery in zebrafish.

Contact Dr Cunliffe

Professor Bazbek Davletov

Chair in Biomedical Science

Novel medicines for chronic pain.Novel botulinum molecules for treatment of excessive secretions. Engineered neuroblastoma cells for development of novel neurological treatments.

Contact Professor Davletov

Andrew Furley profile

Professor Andrew Furley

Professor of Developmental Neuroscience

Development of sensory & pain circuits, control of neural progenitor and stem cell function

Contact Professor Furley

Professor John Haycock

Professor John Haycock

Professor of Bioengineering

Biomaterials and bioengineering, 3D imaging and models for nerve repair

Contact Professor Haycock

Professor Matthew Holley

Emeritus Professor

Development and function of the mammalian inner ear

Contact Professor Holley

Dr Stuart Johnson

Royal Society University Research Fellow

Signalling characteristics of cochlear hair cells

Contact Dr Johnson

Professor Mikko Juusola

Professor of Systems Neuroscience

Phototransduction, retinal and central processing of visual information

Contact Professor Juusola

Dr Dan Lambert

Reader in Molecular Cell Biology

Neuronal-tumour interactions, molecular basis of pain, extracellular vesicles, non-coding RNA

Contact Dr Lambert

Andrew Lin

Dr Andrew Lin

Vice-Chancellor's Fellow

Olfaction, learning and memory, activity-dependent plasticity

Contact Dr Lin

Professor Alison Loescher

Professor of Oral Surgery

Facial pain

Contact Professor Loescher

Mirna Mustapha

Dr Mirna Mustapha

Noise and age-related hearing impairment

Contact Dr Mustapha

Dr Mohammed Nassar

Lecturer

Role of sodium channels in pain, new DRG cell lines for drug discovery and screening

Contact Dr Nassar

Dr Anton Nikolaev

Lecturer in Neuroscience

Visual information processing in the central nervous system

Contact Dr Nikolaev

Professor Marysia Placzek

Professor in Developmental Neurobiology

Development of the hypothalamus; homeostasis in health and disease

Contact Professor Placzek

Marcelo Rivolta

Professor Marcelo Rivolta

Professor of Sensory Stem Cell Biology

Auditory stem cells, inner ear repair

Contact Professor Rivolta

Dr Liz Seward

Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science

Neurotransmission and chronic pain; regulation of exocytosis by receptors, ion channels, SNARE regulatory proteins and adhesion molecules

Contact Dr Seward

Profile photo Dr Fredericus (Freek) van Eeden

Dr Fredericus van Eeden

Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science

DNA damage is an important driver that underlies neurodegeneration.  We are studying the roles of the VHL/HIF signalling axis, focusing on the developing zebrafish larvae as an in vivo model.

Contact Dr van Eeden

Professor Tanya Whitfield

Professor of Developmental Biology

Development of vertebrate sensory systems.

Contact Dr Whitfield

Cognitive and Mental Health

Dr Asha Akram

Lecturer in Psychology

Neurodegenerative disorders, cell death following ischaemic stroke, targets for pharmacological treatment, rehabilitation therapy, clinical translation

Contact Dr Akram

Mauricio Alveraz profile photo

Dr Mauricio Alvarez

Lecturer in Machine Learning

Machine learning, stochastic processes, Bayesian inference

Contact Dr Alvarez

Dr Paul Armitage

Lecturer in MRI Physics

Post-processing methods for MRI data, diffusion tensor imaging, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, arterial spin labelling, image registration, MR signal modelling

Contact Dr Armitage

Mahnaz Arvaneh Profile Picture

Dr Mahnaz Arvaneh

Lecturer

Brain computer interface, Closed-loop personalised cognitive and physical rehabilitation, Neural signal processing

Contact Dr Arvaneh

Claudia von Bastian

Dr Claudia von Bastian

Lecturer in Psychology

Executive functions, memory & learning, cognitive ageing, cognitive plasticity

Contact Dr von Bastian

Dr Jason Berwick

Reader in Neurophysiology

Neurovascular coupling, imaging, electrophysiology

Contact Dr Berwick

Daniel Coca

Professor Daniel Coca

Professor of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Mathematical theory of neural computation, visual information processing in Drosophila, optical brain imaging, large-scale simulation of neuronal systems

Contact Professor Coca

Dr Enrico Dall’Ara

Senior Lecturer in Multiscale Musculoskeletal Imaging

Computational models for improving the diagnosis and treatments for neuro-musculoskeletal diseases (preclinical and clinical)

Contact Dr Dall'Ara

Professor Paul Dean

Cerebella algorithm, cerebellar microcircuit, basal ganglia

Contact Professor Dean

Tom Farrow Staff

Dr Tom Farrow

Senior Lecturer in Neuroimaging

Structural (voxel-based morphometry) and functional MR brain imaging, electrophysiological recording (skin conductance response), neuromodulation (transcranial direct current stimulation), psychiatric disorders, neurologic disorders

Contact Dr Farrow

Alex Fletcher

Dr Alexander Fletcher

Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Biology

Computational modelling of neuroepithelial patterning and morphogenesis

Contact Dr Fletcher

Dr Megan Freeth

Social cue information, neural basis of autistic behaviours

Contact Dr Freeth

Professor Paul Griffiths

Professor of Radiology

Paediatric neuroimaging, in utero MRI scanning, clinical practice

Contact Professor Griffiths

Dr Ling-zhong Guo

Dr Lingzhong Guo

Lecturer in Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

Computationally efficient modelling and simulation including proxy measurement, surrogate modelling, and reduced order modelling

Contact Dr Guo

Professor Kevin Gurney

Computational modelling of basal ganglia, decision making, cognitive robotics

Contact Professor Gurney

Professor Nigel Hoggard

Professor of Neuroradiology

Diagnostic applications of MRI, neuroscience, head and neck imaging

Contact Professor Hoggard

Dr Clare Howarth

Vice-Chancellor's Advanced Fellow

Blood supply to the brain, astrocytes, neuroimaging

Contact Dr Howarth

Dr Myles Jones

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Non-invasive functional neuroimaging techniques, cerebral hemodynamics, imaging data, stimulus-evoked neural activity, “resting-state” neuroimaging data

Contact Dr Jones

Professor Damien Lacroix

Professor of Mechanobiology

Contact Professor Lacroix

Liat Levita

Dr Liat Levita

Developmental neuroscience, fMRI, sMRI, EEG, emotion, cognition, threat and reward processing, adolescence

Contact Dr Levita

Haiping Lu

Dr Haiping Lu

Senior Lecturer in Machine Learning

Machine learning, medical imaging, network analysis

Contact Dr Lu

Dr Mike Mangan

Computational neuroscience primarily related to invertebrates; verification of neural hypothesis through embedded systems on robots; place learning and navigation; novel sensory systems inspired by nature but applied to engineering problems

Contact Dr Mangan

James Marshall

Professor James Marshall

Professor of Theoretical and Computational Biology

Computational neuroscience, behaviour, decision-making, robotics

Contact Professor Marshall

Dr Chris Martin

Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Psychobiology

Functional brain imaging signals, neurovascular coupling, science communication, public understanding

Contact Dr Martin

Professor Lyudmila Mihaylova

Professor Lyudmila Mihaylova

Professor of Signal Processing and Control

Novel methods for autonomous intelligent systems: for sensing, tracking and decision making, machine learning and their engineering applications.

Contact Professor Mihaylova

Professor Liz Milne

Autism spectrum disorders, perception, EEG technique

Contact Professor Milne

Dr Michael Okun

Dr Michael Okun

Lecturer in Psychology

Systems and computational neuroscience, cortical microcircuits, large-scale electrophysiology.

Contact Dr Okun

Professor Paul Overton

Basal ganglia, dopaminergic neurons, neuroadaptations through drug abuse

Contact Professor Overton

Tony Prescott shaking hands with the iCub robot

Professor Tony Prescott

Professor of Cognitive Robotics

Computational cognitive neuroscience, bio-inspired robotics, biomimetic and biohybrid systems

Contact Professor Prescott

Professor Peter Redgrave

Basal ganglia, computational processes, superior colliculus

Contact Professor Redgrave

Professor Markus Reuber

Non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD), psychosocial and neuropsychological aspects of epilepsy, doctor-patient communication

Contact Professor Reuber

Dr Paul Richmond

Large-scale simulation of neuronal systems, High performance computing and simulation (GPUs and distributed), Software Engineering for Neuroscience

Contact Dr Richmond

Dr Hannes Saal

Computational neuroscience, touch and tactile processing, neural coding, robotics, human psychophysics

Contact Dr Saal

Dr Michael Smith

Academic Fellow

Contact Dr Smith

Dr Tom Stafford

Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Cognitive Science

Learning, decision making, movement system

Contact Dr Stafford

Dr Nemanja Vaci

Lecturer in Psychology

Development of expertise across the lifetime, cognitive performance in patients with dementia diseases, large-scale data analysis, machine learning and advanced statistical modelling, natural language processing. 

Contact Dr Vaci

Dr Thomas Webb

Self-regulation, behaviour change, goal achievement, motivation

Contact Dr Webb

Dr Hua-Liang Wei

Senior Lecturer

Neurophysiology, neuro-imaging data modelling and analysis, EEG, fMRI and ECG data, classification, pattern recognition, anomaly detection

Contact Dr Wei