UCL Institute of Neurology

Professor Alan Thompson, Dean of the Faculty of Brain Sciences, has been awarded a lifetime Honorary Membership from the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) at its 28th Congress on 13 October 2012 in Lyon, France. This is the first time this award has been given in the 28 year history of the largest international multiple sclerosis (MS) organisation and reflects Professor Thompson’s outstanding international reputation within the field of MS research and his extraordinary contributions to ECTRIMS, an organization which brings together European researchers in MS and connects MS researchers worldwide.

New Gowers’ biography released

A new book chronicling the life of distinguished clinical neurologist, William Richard Gowers, was launched yesterday at Queen Square at the Third International Workshop on Functional Neurosurgery. William Richard Gowers (1845-1915): Exploring the Victorian Brain is co-authored by UCL Institute of Neurology’s Professor Andrew Lees, Ann Scott, Gowers great granddaughter, and Mervyn Eadie, a neurologist from Brisbane.

An international multi-centred trial published in the leading medical journal JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) this week, demonstrates a significant treatment benefit using the repurposed cardiac drug, mexiletine, in a genetically stratified cohort of patients with the rare genetic neurological disorder, non-dystrophic myotonia. Professor Michael Hanna, Director of the MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases led the UCL team including MRC clinical training fellow Dr Dipa Raja Rayan as the top recruiting site in this international trial.