The MAHSC Neuroscience Domain is pleased to provide an update on the 5 clinical fellowship positions awarded in December 2024. With major impacts from our 2021 clinical fellowship initiatives the domain was pleased to commit to further the research careers of our successful applicants through this second round of funding. Commencing from early 2025 the following five applicants will utilise their fellowship time (12-18 months) and funding to further a broad spectrum of work within the field of neuroscience.

Katherine Dodd

Katherine’s work so far has been aiming to enable more research into Myasthenia Gravis, which is a rare and under-investigated autoimmune condition. The newly established Manchester Neuromuscular Research Group has been a key part of delivering this work, with biobank collections from within Northern Care Alliance Research Collection and Manchester Cancer Research Centre being established to facilitate laboratory work into biomarkers and disease mechanism. This work will build upon previous PhD work looking at immune changes in those with myasthenia refractory to standard treatments.

This fellowship will also allow for leading work on a suite of Cochrane Systematic Reviews for different treatment options for myasthenia, including rituximab, neonatal Fc receptor inhibitors, and complement inhibitors. Recruitment has also commenced for the newly established national MG database and Katherine is also working as the local Principal Investigator for an upcoming clinical trial in MG, examining a type of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (DESCARTES-08).

Andrea Wadeson

Andrea has been awarded funding for 1-day per week of focused research time over the period of the fellowship and will be focusing her efforts on Vestibular Schwannoma and Work Ability, in partnership with the Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre. Professor Audrey Bowen and the statistics team at the University of Manchester are now working together to review data from the initial pilot study on which much of this work will be based. The final goal for this fellowship will be to support and deliver NIHR grant applications, which will potentially yield a strong return on funding income from the initial supported fellowship funding.

Lauren Lucas

The fellowship award for Lauren Lucas will also include contributions from Professor Bowen at the University of Manchester and will continue work from Lauren’s PhD, which she successfully completed in April 2025. So far the fellowship has supported the awarding of an honorary contract from UoM; supported research time for the revision of systematic reviews, publications to Clinical Rehabilitation, and Disability and Rehabilitation journals; the submission of multiple abstracts and conference presentations (PSYRIS, GMNISDN and UKSF conferences); and dedicated PCPI work via online and in-person meetings, and the development of a PCPI-focused paper for publication. Lauren was joint winner of the OPSYRIS rising star award and was presented with the award at the conference in July, with plans also in place for developing future publications as well as further scoping and engagement activity with clinical teams in GM.

Amit Kishore

Following a successful clinical fellowship period in the previous round of funding, the MAHSC Neuroscience domain was pleased to offer an extension to Amit for the continuation of the great work already underway, as well as delivering on new targets. Initial data collection was completed and preliminary results for the Stroke-Associated INfections after Mechanical Thrombectomy (SAINT-MT) project were submitted for presentation at ESOC 2025 and the Newcastle Stroke Research Workshop (Sep 2025). A systematic review has been completed for the Long-terms outcomes after stroke-associated pneumonia. Amit is now also the co-applicant and PI for the Clarithromycin in post-stroke pneumonia (CLASP) trial and received a BIASP writing group award November 2024 for a sub-study of CLASP Trial using Pulmonary CT in SAP patients. The fellowship supported Amit to complete a recent Stroke Association Lectureship Application (Feb 2025), which is now being reviewed for future resubmission. And finally, Amit was awarded a PhD in Stroke-Associated Pneumonia (July 2025) at the University of Salford and is co-supervising 2 current PhD students the University of Manchester.

Jacki Bambrough

The fMRI Social Cognition Pilot Study was developed to explore new methods of brain function monitoring during surgical intervention on patients with low grade glioma (LGG) brain tumours. Jacki is leading on investigations into the feasibility and clinical value of introducing a new social cognition task to be completed during the patients routine pre-operative functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Within the pilot, patients undergoing regular treatment for LGG tumours will complete tasks aimed at identifying the brain areas and networks involved when making social inferences. Pre- and post-surgical fMRI scans will reveal any changes to language or social functioning as a result of surgical intervention. This fellowship is bringing together a group of experts including staff from the MRC Cognition and Brain Unit, University of Cambridge, and the Bangor Neuroimaging Unit.