LOCATION:

John Radcliffe Hospital, West Wing, Level 6, Headley Way, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9DU

DPhil start date

1 October 2018

Project title

Deep brain stimulation for autonomic and gait symptoms in multiple system atrophy

Supervisors

Professor Alex Green, Professor Tipu Aziz and Professor James FitzGerald

I am currently a first year DPhil student working with Professor Alex Green looking at the effects of deep brain stimulation for autonomic problems in multiple system atrophy. We have shown in previous work in Parkinson’s disease that pedunculopontine nucleus deep brain stimulation can be helpful for gait problems, postural hypotension, and bladder dysfunction. These symptoms are common in MSA, and so we are undertaking a surgical trial to assess the effects of PPN DBS in MSA.

I obtained an honours degree in Immunology and then medical degrees from the University of Glasgow. I then went on to complete a Master of Science degree at the University of Edinburgh, with my research project focusing on the effects of subarachnoid haemorrhage in the West of Scotland. I then completed a postgraduate certificate in genomics at the University of Cambridge. I was subsequently appointed as an Academic Clinical Fellow in neurosurgery at the University of Oxford.

I am now taking time out of clinical neurosurgery to complete a DPhil in functional neurosurgery as an Oxford-Bounden and Clarendon scholar.