"I invite you to browse the following pages for a snapshot of the 2022 activity of the Division of Neurosurgery (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), a year that saw the slow return of more “normal” activity around the world as we began to emerge from various lockdowns due the COVID-19 pandemic.
We continue to make impactful advances in adult neurosurgical domains, bridging from fundamental mechanistic research through to clinical trials. This work is supported by grants from a number of sources and has resulted in publications in dozens of different journals.
You will get a glimpse of our values and see our commitment to active enquiry aimed at advancing our understanding of the nervous system and the diseases that afflict it as we strive to improve the lives of our patients and those of future generations. We look forward to the continued successes of this hard work in the years to come". 

Professor Rob Brownstone, Head of UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology Division of Neurosurgery, Brain Research UK Chair in Neurosurgery.

“ I am really delighted to see the major progress made by all colleagues in the division of neurosurgery over this last year. I am especially pleased to see the excellent cohort of early career surgeon scientists who will be crucial for future research and clinical advances. Congratulations to all!”

Professor Michael Hanna, Director, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology.

Key achievements include:

  • The Brain Tumour Unit was awarded a Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence and is part of the Tessa Jowell Training Academy.
  • The National Gamma Knife Research Collaborative: Ciaran Hill has assembled a core group of GK practitioners and specialist team members to facilitate the design and delivery of a portfolio of GKRC-approved research studies.
  • Establishing the Queen Square Simulation Centre as the UK’s premier neuroscience simulation centre to deliver state-of-the-art high fidelity simulations and augmented clinical training. Since 2021 27 Courses have been delivered with 488 participants. 100% of participants would attend another course.
  • Expansion of our Integrated Academic Training (IAT) Programmes. We have typically been successful in being granted an Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) position every 1-2 years, and currently have three trainees in each of the first 3 years of training (ST1-3). We have also been very successful in recent years in being granted Clinical Lecturer (CL) positions, with 2 CLs in post in 2022.
  • The Victor Horsley Department of Neurosurgery hosting several RCS England approved peri-CCT senior clinical fellowships.
  • Delivery of a wide range of educational activities, including the Masters in Neurosurgery by Research (MRes) ; our flagship annual Queen Square Review Course; The Future of Neurosurgery Series and The Brain Cancer Seminar Series;
  • Over 70 presentations at international and UK conferences and events; organisation of over 30 courses and symposia.
  • Publishing 120 peer reviewed papers. 

Image: SBNS, Cardiff, 2022

Image: Andrew McEvoy & Anna Miserocchi & John Duncan.

Grants

As of 2022, our active grant portfolio has a value of over £16M. In 2022, the division was awarded grants to the value of over £1M, over £279K with a consultant/trainee named as the principal investigator and over £882K with a consultant/trainee named as a collaborator/co-PI/Co-investigator.

Grants over £500k:

Principal Investigator
  • Hani Marcus: EPSRC, 2021-2024, Context Aware Augmented Reality for Endonasal Endoscopic Surgery, £1,109,056;
  • Rob Brownstone: MRC, 2020-2023, Beyond the basal ganglia: spinal circuit dysfunction as a final pathway for movement disorganisation in tor1a dystonia, £801,576;
  • Rob Brownstone: Wellcome Trust Investigator Award, 2016-2022, Tuning spinal motoneurons for movement, £3,608,163.
Co-Investigator
  • Andrew McEvoy: MRC-DPFS, 2018-2023, Engineered potassium channel gene therapy for epilepsy, £2,488,648
  • Andrew McEvoy: Wellcome Trust Innovator Award, 2020-2024, Navigation to improve outcome of epilepsy surgery, £752,983;
  • Ludvic Zrinzo: NIHR, 2021 – 2024, Double blind comparison of optimised Deep Brain Stimulation for severe Tourette syndrome, £538,999
  • Harith Akram: NIHR EME, 2021 - 2024 Double blind comparison of optimised Deep Brain Stimulation for severe Tourette syndrome, £500,000 plus £500,000 from Boston Scientific;
  • Patrick Grover: NIHR, 2020-2023, The Cavernomas a Randomised Effectiveness (CARE) Pilot Trial, £973,835;
  • Rob Brownstone: Wellcome Technology Development Grant, 2022 – 2025, Concurrent non-invasive millisecond imaging of brain and spinal cord in health and disease, £659,982.
Collaborator:

  • Andrew McEvoy: Wellcome Trust Investigator Award in Science, 2021-2026, Epilepsy and neurodegeneration: disease mechanisms and early detection, £2,367,251.

Awards

  • Ciaran Hill : Selected for RCSEd Future Leadership Programme by SBNS.
  • Anand Pandit (Trainee) : Hydrocephalus Society - Young Investigator Award. Awarded to supervised MSc student, and Anand is the lead author on the project.
  • Danyal Khan (Trainee) : 
    • Sir Hugh Cairns Essay Prize 2022, SBNS;
    • Associate Faculty Member Travel Award 2022, Faculty Opinions;
    • Queen Square Neurosurgery “Research and Audit” Prize 2022;
    • Queen Square Neurosurgery “Microsurgical Skills” Trainee Award 2022.
  • Debayan Dasgupta (Trainee) : Best Oral Presentation, Society of British Neurological Surgeons, Blackpool Conference, 2022.

Sir Victor Horsley Memorial Lecture

The annual meeting celebrates the enduring legacy of one of the greatest National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery doctors.

Our 2022 lecturer was Professor Philip Starr, Dolores Cakebread Professor of Neurological Surgery, at the University of California, San Francisco. His presentation, "Chronic invasive brain recording and adaptive deep brain stimulation: A new era in neuromodulation."

Image: Professor Philip Starr and Professor Rob Brownstone.

Links