BIOGRAPHY

After completing my medical and neurology training in Australia, I came to the UK in 1996 to undertake a Clinical Epilepsy Fellowship at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford.

In 1998 I was awarded the Sir Desmond Pond Fellowship by the Epilepsy Research Foundation UK to carry out research into the assessment of language in pre-operative epilepsy surgery patients using functional MRI at the University of Oxford FMRIB Centre.  This work formed the basis for my subsequent Doctor of Medicine thesis.  I was appointed as an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford in 2000 whilst continuing this research.

Since 2003 I have worked as full time NHS Consultant Neurologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford, and from 2003-2010 was also appointed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.  In 2010, I became the Clinical Lead for the Oxford Epilepsy and Epilepsy Surgery Programme.

SOURCES OF RESEARCH FUNDING

• British Medical Association
• Epilepsy Research UK
• HDH Wills 1965 Trust
• OUP John Fell Fund

RESEARCH SUMMARY

My research interests are focused on using brain imaging and immune approaches to understand differences in the brain structure and function of patients with intractable epilepsy, and ultimately, develop individually-tailored treatment approaches.

The aims of our long-running multi-modal brain imaging research, carried out with Dr. Natalie Voets at the University of Oxford FMRIB Centre, are to understand: 1) how anatomical changes in the epileptic brain affect functional organisation and behavioural performance, and 2) to identify imaging markers predictive of surgical outcomes in individual patients with epilepsy and brain tumours.

My other major area of interest is in the evolving field of the role of auto-antibodies in epilepsy. In collaboration with other colleagues (including Dr. Bethan Lang, Dr. Sarosh Irani and Professor Angela Vincent), we are clinically characterising patients with newly-diagnosed focal epilepsy to establish the frequency of auto-antibodies in these patients, and the clinical features which may predict their presence and specificity. This will allow us to better define the aetiology of refractory epilepsy in some patients, and identify those patients who may benefit from immunotherapy.