The Research Team
The research team contribute to a wide spectrum of activities from basic science through to patient care and consists of a multidisciplinary range of experts.
Below are short biographies of the principal investigators.
Professor Helen Cross
Professor Helen Cross is The Prince of Wales’s Chair of Childhood Epilepsy and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Neurology at UCL-Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, London and the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy, Lingfield.Although she has a significant research commitment, she has been involved specifically in developing epilepsy services, particularly the epilepsy surgery programme, working across four departments. She has been Chair of the ILAE Commission for Paediatrics (2005 – 2009), Assistant Secretary to the Board of the European Paediatric Neurology Society (2005 – 2009), Chair of the Trustees of Epilepsy Research UK (2005 – 2011) and President of the British Paediatric Neurology Association (2008 – 2011). She currently sits on the ILAE Commission for European Affairs, where she is Co-Chair of the sub-committee for ILAE Task Force for Global Outreach and Chair of the Task Force for Paediatric Epilepsy Surgery. She is on the Editorial Board of Epileptic Disorders, Developmental Medicine Child Neurology and European Journal of Paediatric Neurology. In 2007 she was awarded an Ambassador for Epilepsy Award by the ILAE. Her research interests include neuroimaging as well as the role of early surgical intervention and new treatments in childhood epilepsy. In addition she is involved in national and international collaboration in the development of epilepsy services, teaching and research.
Professor Brian Neville
Professor Brian Neville was the first Prince of Wales’s Chair of Childhood Epilepsy, stepping aside from this post only to continue with research in December 2007. He was the first Professor of Paediatric Neurology in the UK appointed in 1989, and developed the unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital to become the largest combined clinical and academic department in the country, with collaborative links across Africa and India. He was also key to the development of the epilepsy surgery programme. He was appointed to the Prince of Wales's Chair of Epilepsy in 2004, with a vision to considerably expand the academic research between UCL, GOSH and Young Epilepsy. His research interests involve the early onset epilepsies, with a focus on mechanisms involved in the comorbidities of cognitive and behaviour impairment, and interventions available to minimise these. He has been a principal driver in highlighting the possible extent of problems encountered by these children in education, and is developing research to determine the true extent of the problem as well as the possible role of intervention in the community.Dr Rod Scott
Dr Rod Scott is a Reader in Paediatric Neuroscience with a specialist research focus on convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) and the mechanisms of brain damage and dysfunction associated with childhood epilepsy. There are ongoing clinical studies evaluating brain abnormality and associated learning impairments following very long seizures (status epilepticus), and investigating long term outcomes from status epilepticus. A randomised controlled trial assessing the impact of multiple drugs on quality of life is in progress at Young Epilepsy. He also leads animal model projects investigating the role of inflammation in brain injury associated with status epilepticus and, in collaboration with Dr Gregory Holmes (Dartmouth College, USA), he is investigating the relative impacts of the relative impacts of early life seizures and developmental brain abnormalities on long term cognitive outcomes.Professor Christopher Gillberg
Professor Christopher Gillberg, MD, PhD, Knight of the Seraphim Order, was the first Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Gothenburg in 1986 and is currently the head of the Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre at Gothenburg University. He has published more than 600 scientific papers, 450 of which are currently at the PubMed site. He is the author of 30 books, 12 of which have been published in five or more languages. He is or has been the editor of many of the leading journals in the field of child neurodevelopment including JCPP, DMCN, JADD, JAD, RIDD and ECAP. He is or has been a visiting/honorary professor at UCL, UCS, NYU, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, Bergen and Odense Universities, Koche and Kobe Universities. He is the winner of many prestigious awards, most recently the 2012 Soderberg medical Prize (“Little Nobel Prize”).Professor Charles Newton
Professor Newton is a Professor of Tropical Neurosciences and Paediatrics and leads the Tropical Neuroscience programme which is primarily based in Africa, in particular at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme in Kilifi, Kenya and at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. In Kilifi they investigate the causes, consequences and burden of neurological conditions in a rural tropical area, particularly those affecting children. In Dar-es-Salaam the team is conducting studies on Sickle Cell Disease and epilepsy; in particular there are plans to use the neuroimaging facilities that are available in the city. More recently the team has been examining the burden of neurological disease in adults, and is funded to conduct studies of epilepsy in five demographic surveillance sites in Africa (Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda) to determine the prevalence, risk factors and treatment gap associated with epilepsy. Professor Newton is based in Oxford and Kenya, and has an honorary appointment with us.
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