Meet the Team: Prof John Duncan

Professor John Duncan is a consultant neurologist specialising in epilepsy at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN). He was clinical director for UCLH’s Queen Square Division from 2011-2018. He is also a professor of neurology at UCL and the UCLH clinical lead for the ION-DRI project.

I’ve been involved in the Grays Inn Road programme from the beginning. Over ten years ago when I was the clinical director of UCLH’s Queen Square Division, which includes the NHNN, Michael Hanna and I had a vision of creating a shared building where neuroscience research could take place alongside clinical work with patients. 

We didn’t know then that this building would be at the wonderful site that is the former Eastman Dental and Royal Free Hospitals on Grays Inn Road. But we did know how important it is for patients, clinicians and researchers to co-locate clinical work and research in one place. 

I am passionate about the new centre for neuroscience and believe that the creation of one building for patients, families, clinicians, researchers and the public is incredibly important for many reasons. 

For patients and their families, the new neuroscience centre will bring many benefits. Many of our patients have travelled from far afield to be treated at the NHNN precisely because of the research that we are involved in at UCL’s Institute of Neurology. The new centre will allow patients and their families to see for themselves the ground-breaking research into their neurological condition. It will also help to open up access to a greater number of clinical trial opportunities for patients to participate in.

Patient and public interaction and dialogue will be greater as people will be able to learn more about the research taking place through digital display screens and talks in the centre’s lecture theatre and seminar rooms. What many people don’t realise is that many ideas for research aren’t just thought up in university corridors, they actually come from patients and their families themselves. The new centre will help to enhance this two-way dialogue and engagement and hopefully lead to more improvements for patient treatment and care.

The new centre will be extremely beneficial to those engaged in research. You cannot underestimate how energising and motivating it is for researchers to be able to see and interact with the people whom their research will ultimately benefit. The new building will help to bridge the divide between research and clinical practice, and help researchers improve the quality of their projects and trials. We are very grateful to the National Brain Appeal for their generous donation towards the programme.

It can literally take years for research trials to be set up and for new innovations to be translated into clinical practice. The hope is that by co-locating in the same space, the set-up time for trials can be shortened and translational research becomes a reality benefiting patients. 

It has been fantastic to watch the new building growing higher and taking shape over recent months, but what is even more exciting is the thought of holding my epilepsy clinics at Grays Inn Road and opening up even more opportunities for my patients and families to benefit from research.