Some people with MND experience changes in their thinking, emotion, language and behaviour together with their motor symptoms. I aim to understand the brain abnormalities that underlies these changes and investigate the impact they have on daily life. My work focuses on understanding problems with higher-order thinking, including decision-making, word generation, understanding social situations and behaviour.Our Research
The major unmet need for patients at the Anne Rowling Clinic is the absence of effective treatments. Our research strategy is to integrate clinical and laboratory research with the aim of innovating and trialling new treatments.
For a jargon-free description, please read our Research Strategy.
Clinical Research
The Anne Rowling Clinic is the Edinburgh hub for clinical trials into neurodegenerative diseases.
Our clinical research strategy is underpinned by Scotland's exceptional data resources and excellence in e-health research. We are therefore well positioned to develop powerful longitudinal patient or disease registries that will both improve health provision as well as enable targeted patient research including clinical trials. With these data we can accelerate accurate diagnosis, study the natural history and prognosis of disease, and develop aids to maintain quality of life. Current projects include:
The Voice Bank Initiative: Collaboration with Edinburgh Informatics to generate bespoke synthesised voices for patients who have voice difficulties (Shuna Colville).- Cognition in MS: studying language and visual function in patients with multiple sclerosis (Mara Sittampalam).
- SMART-MND: To monitor and improve care and outcomes for motor neurone disease patients (Shuna Colville).
- Edinburgh Cognitive ALS screen: Battery of psychological tests to measure cognitive changes in motor neurone disease patients (Sharon Abrahams and Thomas Bak).
Laboratory Research
Many of our laboratory-based studies are focused on stem cells, a particularly strong research area at the University of Edinburgh, the birthplace of Dolly the sheep. Current projects include:
- Interaction between glia and neurons in health and disease (Siddharthan Chandran).
- Pathogenic mechanisms of disease proteins such as alpha-synuclein (Tilo Kunath).
- Remyelination and repair in multiple sclerosis (Charles ffrench-Constant, Siddharthan Chandran and Anna Williams).
Please see our featured publications and visit the web pages of the Anne Rowling Clinic staff for details of their individual research interests.