Prof Sonia Gandhi

Professor of Neurology

Clinical and Movement Neurosciences

UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology

Joined UCL: 1st Nov 2007

Research summary

Sonia is a clinician scientist whose research and clinical focus is the study of neurodegenerative diseases. Her laboratory develops disease relevant human cellular models of disease, and studies their pathology utilising dynamic imaging of neuronal and mitochondrial physiology. This approach has enabled the dissection of cellular mechanisms that lead to neuronal death in genetic forms of Parkinson's disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The laboratory has an interest in the process of protein aggregation, and how this impacts cellular and organellar dysfunction during disease. In close collaboration with the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, the laboratory applies novel single molecule and super resolution imaging to disease models to investigate how the oligomerisation of proteins alters cellular pathways. A major emphasis of this work is the translation of mechanistic insights in pathogenesis into improved diagnostics, biomarkers, and ultimately novel targets for disease modifying therapy in neurodegeneration.

Education

University College London: Doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy | 2009
Royal College of Physicians: Doctorate, Member of the Royal College of Physicians | 2002
University of Oxford: Doctorate, Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery | 1999
University of Cambridge: First Degree, Bachelor of Arts | 1996

Biography

Sonia obtained a BA in Neuroscience at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, in 1996, and completed her degree in Medicine at New College, University of Oxford, in 1999. She trained in postgraduate medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Whittington Hospital. Sonia was awarded a Wellcome Clinical Research Training Fellowship to complete a PhD in Neuroscience at UCL Institute of Neurology in 2004. In 2007, she trained as a Specialist registrar in Neurology, and took up an NIHR Lectureship in Neurology at Imperial College in 2009. In 2012 she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship, and established her laboratory at the UCL Institute of Neurology in October 2013. She was awarded a laboratory secondment to the Francis Crick Institute in 2016.

Publications: Show more publications