Our main role is to assist in the provision of funds for research groups based in Scotland whose work will ultimately help patients with brain tumours, stroke, head injury, Parkinson’s Disease, depression, schizophrenia, MS, epilepsy or other diseases of the central nervous system.
Moving ahead with brain research and education
We help provide funds for research to help with brain injuries and diseases of the brain
The Foundation has granted over £1 million to early career doctors and scientists to explore new techniques and diagnostic treatments for conditions relating to these disorders of nerves and the nervous system.
The Neurosciences Foundation supports Scottish groups researching innovative techniques and treatments of neurological conditions
Acute stroke
Our £9.6K award for a stroke study lead by Professor Keith Muir at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow led to a £250K grant. Current practice is to attempt to remove the clot, but only if this can be done within 4.5 hours of onset of the stroke. The team are exploring whether this time window could be extended to 24 hours.
Intensive Care Unit Project
Funding from the Neurosciences Foundation enabled Dr Ian Piper to obtain preliminary data that helped to secure a €2.3M framework 7 grant from the European Union.
Brain Tumour Project
The Neurosciences Foundation raised £150,000 to support the pioneering work of Prof Moira Brown, who demonstrated that a modified version of the HSV virus that causes cold sores could selectively destroy rapidly dividing cancer cells and not normal brain cells.
Some of our researchers after their NSF 2019 seminar presentations
Katerina, Maria and Tim relax after their excellent presentations at the NSF 2019 Research Seminar
Hear what some of our researchers are doing
Meet the trustees and members of the medical advisory board
Sarah has more than 25 years of experience as a clinician and academic in the fields of prosthetics and orthotics. She worked at the University of Strathclyde for 21 years, teaching rehabilitation of those with limb absence, and professional skills for healthcare. She has published much of her research, and has enjoyed international and national speaking engagements. Sarah currently devotes time to her husband and two children, The Neurosciences Foundation, property development, gardening, and trying to be more physically active through walking Jimmy the dog.
William has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Molecular Physics and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from The University of Nottingham.
Saif is passionate about improving access of care to patients and has helped develop telemedicine (internet) clinics across Scotland over the past decade. He is also fascinated by the workings of the mind and works closely with many neuropsychologists to help improve care of people with neuropsychological illnesses.
In his spare time, Saif enjoys road cycling and following the peloton on the UCI world cycling calendar. and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.
In his spare time, Saif enjoys road cycling and following the peloton on the UCI world cycling calendar. and supplies it with the necessary regelialia.
Publications have involved a range of investigations into the theme of central nervous system abnormality: its causes, repair mechanisms and outcome; how they might be visualised and measured objectively by radiology, particularly using MRI and SPECT at each stage particularly in relation to the response to treatment. These insults to the brain and spinal cord range through stroke, degenerative disease, trauma, demyelination and epilepsy to the growth of tumours.
Dave’s most recent focus is on public understanding of science. We can easily resort to using acronyms and terms that are unfamiliar to non-scientists, but it should be possible to explain all science without resorting to jargon. Sadly, few lay summaries are clear to non-scientists. It’s a challenge.
To relax Dave gets on his bicycle. For many years he was a road runner, but has now reduced the pounding by getting on his Paralane Focus and riding sedately round the hills to the south of Glasgow. For many years he was a piper in Williamwood Pipe Band and is still invited to many weddings.
Margaret has put up with him for over 50 years and they have two sons, one daughter and two grandchildren. Margaret’s passion is dance. She set up and ran the Dance Foundation and now has several hundred children and mothers. Dave puts up the barres.
In his spare time, Paul plays with his vintage Hornby Dublo collection and wishes Everton FC could do better.
Andrew qualified in medicine at the University of London (1979) and obtained a PhD in Neuroscience from the same University (1983). He moved to University of Glasgow in 1984, and became a Professor in 2000. His work over the last 40 years has investigated the organisation of nerve circuits in the spinal cord, and in particular those that are responsible for pain and itch. Understanding more about these circuits will be important for the development of new treatments for these common conditions.
As founder of University of Edinburgh spin-out, eoSurgical Ltd, Paul has also led innovation in surgical simulation training around the world. In the laboratory Paul probes mechanistic hypotheses generated by using large scale clinical data to drive discovery science. He collaborates on bringing innovative technologies to the clinic, developing the clinical and scientific evidence for adoption in routine care, such as the Clinspec Dx spectroscopic liquid biopsy test that can both stratify tumour risk in a symptomatic patient population, and predict tumour phenotype.
He is part of the CRUK Adult Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, based on Edinburgh.
He is part of the CRUK Adult Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, based on Edinburgh.
Henry is a fellow member of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants who has operated at Director level, within industry, over the last 20 years.
Since her retirement Amanda has continued her interest in IT by developing WordPress websites for family, friends, and charities. She has an interest in brain cancer research as she has suffered the loss of two close family members to brain tumours.
When not developing websites Mandy likes to spend time in the garden, reading, walking, and exploring Edinburgh and the Lothians on her bike.
Following retirement, he established the NIHR Brain Injury Healthcare Technology Cooperative (now MedTech Cooperative) and moved to East Lothian for grandchildren, golf and escape from too many committees.
Kristin has a PhD in Psychology with a concentration in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Michigan. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship in fMRI at the University of California, Davis, in 2015 she moved to the University of Glasgow to take up the role of Lead Scientist of SINAPSE (Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform for Scientific Excellence), a consortium of seven Scottish universities and partner NHS boards which maintains a shared environment for imaging research, knowledge exchange and education.
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