Professor Malcolm MacLeod (BSc(Hons) MBChB PhD FRCP Ed)
Professor of Neurology and Translational Neuroscience

- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- Edinburgh CAMARADES group
- NHS Forth Valley
Contact details
- Email: Malcolm.macleod@ed.ac.uk
Responsibilities & affiliations
- Member, UK Home Office Animals in Science Committee
- Commissioner, Commission for Human Medicines, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
Research summary
Every week around 3500 new pieces of research involving animals are published. It is almost impossible for anyone to stay up to date with current knowledge. We have also shown that much of that work is at substantial risk of bias - and the effects observed in animals may be substantially overstated as a consequence.
In our research we are developing tools to provide unbiased summaries of what is already known, including tools to assess whether effects in animals may be overstated. We then use this information to help guide better design of clinical trials testing treatments in humans.
Examples of trials we have helped design using this approach include EuroHYP-1 - a trial of brain cooling in stroke - and MS-SMART, a trial in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.
Research aims and areas of interest
My group has led the development and application of systematic review and meta-analysis to the analysis of data from animal studies modelling neurological diseases such as stroke. This work allows an overview of how effective the drug is in animals; identification of the limits to efficacy in animals which might be relevant to human clinical trials; and an assessment of the risk that the findings of animal studies are biased because of poor experimental design.
Now we are using this information to provide guidance to those using, funding, publishing and measuring the contribution of research involving animals. With others we are seeking to develop ways of providing real-time summaries of the current state of knowledge to guide future research and to help with research resource allocation decisions. We are also developing techniques of meta-moderation and mediation analysis to better understand pathophysiological pathways in animal models of human diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
I am involved in clinical trials in stroke including EuroHYP-1, a 1500-patient trial of brain cooling for acute ischaemic stroke; FOCUS, a trial of antidepressants following stroke; and phase 1 studies testing the effectiveness of local brain cooling in reducing brain temperature.
Research group members
- Dr Emily Sena, Senior Post Doc and Deputy Group Leader
- Dr Gillian Currie, Post-doc
- Dr Jing Liao, Programmer
- Zsanett Bahor, PhD student
- Alexandra Bannach-Brown, Joint Aarhus-Edinburgh MSc/PhD student
Collaborators
- Prof David Howells, Florey Neurosciences Institute, Melbourne, Australia
- Prof Andrew Rice, Imperial College, London
- Prof Uli Dirnagl, Charite, Berlin
- Prof Greg Wegener, Aarhus University, Denmark
Sources of funding
- European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
- NC3Rs (National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research)
Research activities
-
Targeting mitochondrial dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
In:
Brain Communications, vol. 1, no. 1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcz009
Contribution to journal › Article (Published) -
Outcome heterogeneity and bias in acute experimental Spinal Cord Injury – a meta-analysis
In:
Neurology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000007718
Contribution to journal › Article (Published) -
Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases : subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial
(10 pages)
In:
Lancet Neurology, vol. 18, no. 7, pp. 643-652
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(19)30184-X
Contribution to journal › Article (Published) -
A randomised controlled trial of an Intervention to Improve Compliance with the ARRIVE guidelines (IICARus)
In:
Research integrity and peer review, vol. 4, no. 1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-019-0069-3
Contribution to journal › Article (Published) -
Effects of antiplatelet therapy after stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage (RESTART): a randomised, open-label trial
In:
The Lancet
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30840-2
Contribution to journal › Article (Published)