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Professor Siddharthan Chandran

Director of Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Edinburgh Neuroscience, Euan MacDonald Centre and Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic

Biography

Background

Professor Siddharthan Chandran is Director of CCBS. His work spans clinical and laboratory activity in the area of Regenerative Neurology.

  • Bachelor of Medicine, Southampton University
  • Neurology training, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London and University of Cambridge
  • PhD in developmental neurobiology, University of Cambridge (2000)
  • Consultant Neurologist, University Lecturer & Fellow of King’s College, University of Cambridge
  • MacDonald Professor of Neurology, University of Edinburgh (2009-present)

Responsibilities & affiliations

At the University of Edinburgh, Professor Chandran is:

Research summary

Neurodegenerative diseases affect cells in the nervous system called neurons. Twenty million people worldwide are diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease each year, and at present they are all progressive and incurable.

The Chandran group links clinical activity with laboratory research into two such conditions: multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease. Measuring disease course and treatment outcomes through disease bio-registers builds an increasingly accurate clinical picture.

In parallel, studies in the lab —including using human stem cells—focus on understanding what is going wrong in the neurons and supporting cells called glia. Bringing these two strands together, the group aims to develop novel regenerative therapies and bring them to early-phase clinical trials.

Professor Siddharthan Chandran works in the emerging discipline of Regenerative Neurology. His research combines laboratory activity that includes human stem cells with specialist clinics (multiple sclerosis [MS] and motor neurone disease [MND]) to both study disease as well as undertake early-phase clinical trials.

The ultimate aim is to develop novel regenerative therapies for neurodegenerative disease.

Clinical research

Based at the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, clinical research is founded on specialist clinics and linked disease registries to develop a clinical experimental infrastructure for longitudinal studies. Current collaborative clinical projects include:

  • Scotland-wide platform for care, research, audit and trials in motor neurone disease (CARE-MND)
  • Scotland-wide MS brain imaging and genomics clinical research study, towards precision medicine (FutureMS)
  • Speak:Unique, the voicebank research project - using informatics to provide personalised synthetic voices for use in communication aids
  • MS-SMART (phase 2) and MS-STAT3 (phase 3): major clinical trials in secondary progressive MS, led by UCL

Lab research

Research in the lab is focused on the glial-neuronal interaction in health and disease. Current approaches include:

  • In vitro modelling of TDP43 proteinopathies using patient-derived iPS cells that have been converted into a range of functional neuronal and glial subtypes
  • In vivo modelling of the interactions between inflammation, neurodegeneration and repair in a mouse model of MS (Biozzi-EAE)

Collaborators

  • David Baker, Queen Mary, University of London (Experimental modelling of MS)
  • Shona Chattarji, NCBS/inStem, Bangalore, India
  • Tamir Ben-Hur, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem (Experimental modelling of MS)
  • Jeremy Chataway, University College, London (Neuroprotection trials in MS)
  • Steven Finkbeiner, University of California, San Francisco (Disease modelling in MND)
  • Tom Maniatis, Columbia University (Disease modelling in MND)
  • Gareth Miles, University of St Andrews (Spinal neuronal electrophysiology)
  • David Miller, University College London (Imaging and neuroprotection trials in MS)
  • Paolo Muraro, Imperial College London (Clinical trial of autologous MSCs in MS)
  • Chris Shaw, King's College London (Disease modelling in MND)
  • Robert Swingler, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee (MND disease register)

Related links

Read more about CCBS research into stem cells & regenerative neurology

Read more about CCBS clinical research & trials

MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine (Edinburgh)

Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences (Neuroregeneration) (Edinburgh)

Centre for Brain Development and Repair (Bangalore-Edinburgh)

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