Biography

Christopher Kennard is a medical graduate of the University of London and he obtained a PhD at the MRC’s National Institute of Medical Research, London. After training posts in neurology in London and Oxford he was appointed Consultant Neurologist at the Royal London Hospital, subsequently moving to Imperial College London as Professor of Clinical Neurology. At Imperial he was Head of the Division of Clinical Neurosciences and Psychological Medicine and subsequently Deputy Principal of the Faculty of Medicine. In 2008 he moved to his current positions as Professor of Clinical Neurology in the University of Oxford and Senior Nicholas Kurti Fellow at Brasenose College. In 2010 he became Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences in the Medical Sciences Division. He is a Delegate of Oxford University Press.

Amongst a variety of senior roles he has held have been editorship of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (1997-2003), Chairmanship of the Medical Research Council’s Neuroscience and Mental Health Board and membership of the MRC Strategy Board (2006-2012) and Presidency of the Association of British Neurologists (2003-2005) and the European Neuro-ophthalmology Society (2011- ).

Research Summary

My research group has researched widely in cognitive neuroscience and visual sciences, particularly using the analysis of abnormalities of visual perception and eye movements in human neurological disease to further understanding of brain function.

Currently we are particularly interested in the cognitive control of movement using saccadic (fast conjugate) eye movements as the exemplar. In patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease we are studying self-initiated action, the control of action when we suddenly have to stop or change our movements and the role of short-term working memory.

We are also studying the utility of saccadic eye movements as a biomarker for the recognition of early neuronal dysfunction in pre-symptomatic patients with the genetic mutation for Huntington's disease and in patients with early Parkinson’s disease and motor neurone disease.

On a different theme we study implicit sequence learning in normal subjects and patient with hippocampal lesions using fMRI to analyse the brains areas involved.

Our research on simulating prosthetic vision has led us to try to develop a low-cost non-invasive visual prosthetic for partially sighted and blind individuals to assist them in navigating their environment.

Sources of Funding

• Wellcome Trust 2004- 2011
• CHDI Foundation 2008- 2014
• NIHR 2010- 2014