Mr James Loan (BMedSci, MB ChB, MRCS, MSc, PhD)
Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Specialty Registrar in Neurosurgery

- Translational Neurosurgery, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences
- Dementia Research Institute
Contact details
- Email: james.loan@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Chancellor's Building
49 Little France Crescent - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH16 4SB
- Street
-
Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences
Hugh Robson Building
George Square - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9XD
Background
I am an academic neurosurgical trainee and am passionate about trying to find solutions to the consequences of acute brain injury. I combine preclinical and clinical methodologies to understand processes of of disease that are harmful or protective in patients and aim to use these to develop new treatments or optimise current management strategies.
Biography
- 2017-present ECAT Clinical Lecturer, University of Edinburgh and Honorary Specialty Registrar in Neurosurgery, NHS Lothian
- 2018-2021: PhD student. UK Dementia Research Institute, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences and Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- 2017-2018: Honorary Specialty Registrar in Neurosurgery, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
- 2016-2017: Supernumerary Neurosurgical Registrar, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. Visiting Scientist at University of Cape Town.
- 2014-2016: Academic Foundation Medical Training in Critical Care, NHS Grampian
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, with honours (MBChB hons), University of Edinburgh
- Bachelor of Medical Sciences with first class honours (Neuroscience) (BMedSci Hons) and first in class, University of Edinburgh
- Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (MRCS Ed)
- Master of Science (MSc Surgical Sciences), with distinction and Lister Medal, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and University of Edinburgh,
Responsibilities & affiliations
Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Associate member of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons
Undergraduate teaching
Current and previous undergraduate medical student supervision:
Dr. Kirun Baweja
Sorha Heelan
Shiv Keni
Jay Park
Dr. Brendan Sargent
Friederike Schaper
Postgraduate teaching
Current and previous academic foundation doctor supervision:
Dr. Angus Gane
Mr. Kieran McGivern
Dr. Steven Tominey
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Research summary
I am a doctor training in neurosurgery. Broadly, I am interested in understanding why inflammatory responses to acute brain injury vary between people and how these impact on long-term clinical outcome. This is important to inform patient selection for surgery and may allow targeted therapeutic development.
Current research interests
I use in vitro and in vivo models of brain haemorrhage to investigate how microglia and recruited peripheral immune cells, sculpt astrocyte and neuronal responses to brain haemorrhage. Using brain tissue and clinical data of patients with brain haemorrhage, I aim to identify mechanisms of injury and neuroprotection that are conserved in patients and harness them therapeutically. This work builds on that of my PhD, supervised by Prof. Giles Hardingham, Dr. Barry McColl and Prof. Rustam Salman and funded by the Wellcome Trust and supported by the UK Dementia Research Institute.Past research interests
Epidemiology of traumatic brain injury; Tuberculous meningitis-
Activation of Nrf2 to optimise immune responses to intracerebral haemorrhage
(23 pages)
In:
Biomolecules, vol. 12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/biom12101438
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (Published) -
Prospective, multicentre study of screening, investigation and management of hyponatraemia after subarachnoid haemorrhage in the UK and Ireland
In:
Stroke and Vascular Neurology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/svn-2022-001583
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Nrf2 activation in the human brain after stroke due to supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage: a case–control study
In:
BMJ Open Neurology, vol. 4, pp. e000238
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjno-2021-000238
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Reactive astrocytes acquire neuroprotective as well as deleterious signatures in response to Tau and Aß pathology
In:
Nature Communications, vol. 13
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27702-w
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Secondary injury and inflammation after intracerebral haemorrhage: a systematic review and meta-analysis of molecular markers in patient brain tissue
In:
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, pp. jnnp-2021-327098
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2021-327098
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Risks of recurrent stroke and all serious vascular events after spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage: pooled analyses of two population-based studies
In:
Lancet Neurology, vol. 20, pp. 437-447
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(21)00075-2
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Investigation and management of serum sodium after subarachnoid haemorrhage (SaSH): a survey of practice in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland
(4 pages)
In:
British Journal of Neurosurgery, pp. 1-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02688697.2020.1859460
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Association of baseline hematoma and edema volumes with one-year outcome and long-term survival after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage: A community-based inception cohort study
In:
International Journal of Stroke, pp. 174749302097428
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1747493020974282
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Association between Computed Tomographic Biomarkers of Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases and Long-Term Outcome after Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage
In:
Annals of Neurology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.25949
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Ventriculoperitoneal shunt insertion in human immunodeficiency virus infected adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
In:
Bmc neurology, vol. 20, pp. 141
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-020-01713-4
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Global Perspectives on Task Shifting and Task Sharing in Neurosurgery
In:
World Neurosurgery: X, vol. 6, pp. 100060
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wnsx.2019.100060
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Prevalence of Anterior Pituitary Dysfunction 12 months or more following Traumatic Brain Injury in Adults – A Systematic review and Meta-analysis
In:
Journal of Neurotrauma, vol. 37
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2018.6349
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
The relationship of the FOUR score to patient outcome: a systematic review
In:
Journal of Neurotrauma
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2018.6243
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Long-term survival and five year hospital resource usage following traumatic brain injury in Scotland from 1997 to 2015: A population-based retrospective cohort study
In:
Injury
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2018.09.029
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Medically induced hypertension, hypervolaemia and haemodilution for the treatment and prophylaxis of vasospasm following aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage: systematic review
(8 pages)
In:
British Journal of Neurosurgery
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02688697.2018.1426720
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Prospective, Multi-Centre Study of External Ventricular Drainage-Related Infections in the United Kingdom and Ireland
In:
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2017-316415
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Ventriculoperitoneal shunt insertion for hydrocephalus in human immunodeficiency virus-infected adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol
(10 pages)
In:
Systematic Reviews, vol. 6
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Pre-operative obesity does not predict poorer symptom control and quality of life after lumbar disc surgery
(6 pages)
In:
British Journal of Neurosurgery, pp. 1-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02688697.2017.1354122
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Academic productivity of neurosurgeons working in the United Kingdom: insights from the h-index and its variants
In:
World neurosurgery, vol. 86
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2015.09.041
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Surgical training is undermined by inadequate provision of laparoscopic surgical simulators
(4 pages)
In:
Bulletin of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, vol. 96, pp. 304-307
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)