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Professor John-Paul Taylor
I am a Professor of Translational Dementia Research and honorary consultant in old age psychiatry at Newcastle University. Clinically I lead a specialist Lewy body dementia clinic in Newcastle upon Tyne and I provide liaison sessions to Parkinson’s clinics in Northumbria.
I have research interests in neurophysiology and neuroimaging and their application to dementia populations, particularly the Lewy body dementias. Specific areas of research include:
· Understanding the neurobiological basis for cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in Lewy body dementias including cognitive fluctuations and visual hallucinations.
· The application of novel neuroimaging and neurophysiological techniques in dementia
· The clinical characterisation of visual hallucinations
· Understanding the dynamic interaction between vision and cognition.
· Developing new biomarkers which can be used for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment stratification.
Dr Paul Donaghy
I am an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow at Newcastle University and a Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust.
My research focuses on dementia with Lewy bodies, with a particular interest in prodromal diagnosis, disease pathophysiology and neuroinflammation. I am also interested in late-onset mental health problems as prodromal presentations of neurodegenerative disease.
My research uses clinical, fluid and imaging biomarkers in longitudinal clinical cohorts and clinical-post mortem correlation.
Dr Daniel Erskine
My research is focused on Lewy body diseases, collectively the second most common form of neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease. Much of my current work is attempting to understand why Lewy bodies form and if they are harmful to neurons.
I have a major interest in rare neurometobolic diseases, particularly those with mechanistic overlaps with Lewy body diseases such as sphingolipid storage disorders and mitochondrial diseases. I am currently leading neuropathological studies into the sphingolipid storage disorders metachromatic leukodystrophy, Krabbe disease and Tay-Sachs disease, and mitochondrial disease cases resulting from nuclear DNA variants, including a significant cohort with Lewy body pathology. I am also involved in further studies investigating the neuropathology of Alpers' syndrome, mitochondrial encephalopathy lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) and myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibres (MERRF).
Dr Sean Colloby
My research interest is in the development and application of advanced neuroimaging analysis approaches and how they can be applied to Lewy body dementias to better diagnosis and understand these diseases.
Carein Todd
I am a research assistant within the Institute if Neuroscience, currently working on the Cholinergic ResponsE in Early lewy body Disease (CREED) study with Professor John-Paul Taylor.
Dr Michael Firbank
My research interests are neuroimaging in the aging brain, including functional/diffusion MRI. I'm currently providing MR physics support for the new 3T PET-MR scanner. I also have an interest in computerised cognitive testing.
Dr Alison Killen
I am a research assistant within the Institute of Neuroscience / Institute for Ageing and Health and my main research interests are in psychological interventions for carer and patient support in dementia with Lewy bodies. I am currently working on the VEEG Stim study.
Dr Lauren Walker
My main research interests lie in investigating the effects of multiple pathological lesions on clinical phenotype in neurodegenerative disorders (e.g. Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body disease). Using a quantitative clinico-patholigical approach we aim to tease is distinct clinico-pathologcal phenotypes which may ultimately lead to tailored treatment options for patients.
Dr Kat Da Silva Morgan
My research interests relate to visual hallucinations across disorders, in particular dementia and eye disease (Charles Bonnet syndrome). I am particularly focussed on understanding both the aetiology of visual hallucinations in the brain and how that may help researchers to develop new and effective interventions for this, often distressing and disruptive, symptom.
Dr Meher Lad
I run basic science (behavioural) and clinical studies looking at auditory cognition and cognitive impairment. I am interested in how sensory perception and cognitive measures change in relation to neurodegenerative disease biomarkers in preclinical neurodegenerative disease in Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Disease. Clinically, I am part of the Clinical Neurosciences department at the Royal Victoria Infirmary and Memory and Management Service, CNTW situated in the Health Innovation Neighbourhood. I use various research methodology including neuropsychometry (in-person and online), psychophysics and neuroimaging (EEG, structural MRI and fMRI).
Kirsty Olsen
I am a research assistant within the Institute of Neuroscience/Institute for Ageing and currently work on the SHAPED study which focuses on visual hallucinations across eye disease, Lewy Body disease and dementia. My main research interests concentrate on driving and dementia and I maintain a resource website related to this. Recently we have produced a set of guidelines for clinicians. The document - Driving with dementia or mild cognitive impairment: consensus guidelines for clinicians, the purpose of these guidelines is to provide clinicians with an understanding of their legal and clinical responsibilities, as well as a framework on which to base appropriate management of those who drive with a diagnosis of dementia or mild cognitive impairment.
Claire Airey
I’m a Research nurse specialising in Dementia with Lewy Bodies. I have worked in memory/dementia services for 24 years.
I work alongside Professor John-Paul Taylor in the LBD clinic as well as in the Research Delivery Team within CNTW.
Nicola Brown
I joined the team a couple of years ago as Research Administrator, in particular supporting John-Paul Taylor with day to day activities including diary management, booking travel and events along with tasks to support John-Paul's Memory Assessment clinic. I also support the wider team with a wide variety of weekly tasks so no two days are the same.
PhD Students
Dr Jahfer Hasoon
I am a clinical research associate within the Institute of Neuroscience and psychiatry trainee working in CNTW. My research interests include computational neuroscience and biomarkers in DLB. I am currently working on the Cholinergic ResponsE in Early lewy body Disease (CREED) study with Professor John-Paul Taylor.
Dr Leigh Townsend
Leigh is a Specialist Registrar in Old Age Psychiatry (ST4). His PhD is focussed on examining the clinical and pathological phenotype of individuals with very late onset psychosis, and using blood and neuroimaging biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease to identify individuals with very late onset psychosis, who are at risk of developing dementia. This is part of the Cognitive Problems in Ageing and Psychosis (CAP) study
Amelia Ikwue
My research focuses on uncovering the mechanisms driving neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment in Lewy Body Dementia (LBD). By combining neuropathological analysis and neuroimaging approaches, I aim to generate insights that could improve diagnosis, care, and future treatments for those affected.
Zoë Owens
My research focuses on improving the diagnostic accuracy of neurodegenerative diseases, especially for people with unrecognised dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). My PhD research aims to (a) identify which factors during life and at autopsy are associated with the recognition of DLB, and (b) characterise the progression of recognised and unrecognised DLB over time to assess whether unrecognised DLB cases have a worse prognosis.
Undergraduate Students
Affiliated Members
Dr Calum Hamilton
I am an ARUK Research Fellow with a background in cognitive psychology. I am interested in the use of innovative research methods to understand individual differences in the presentation and progression of suspected neurodegenerative conditions.
Current studies aim to:
- Establish regionally-appropriate norms for dementia screening tests in North East England.
- Understand individuals' awareness of their own cognitive performance in healthy and abnormal ageing.
- Assess how individual differences in the overall burden of pathology explains differences in degenerative disease course.
- Predict progression of mild cognitive impairment.
Dr Judith Harrison
Judith is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Old Age Psychiatry at Newcastle University and an Honorary Psychiatrist with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. She has a background in neuroimaging and genomics, and her research focuses on developing and evaluating digital and AI tools to support dementia assessment and care, with a particular interest in Lewy body disorders. She leads the LUMEN project, which is developing language-based tools for dementia assessment, and is Principal Investigator for the dementia cohort of the Wellcome Trust-funded GlobalMinds study. Judith is also an Expert Reviewer for the MHRA on software as a medical device, and works on the regulation and safe implementation of digital mental health technologies.
Sonja Fenske
I utilize data-driven, normative modelling and advanced statistical approaches to detect brain features relating to co-occurring phenotypical traits. My expertise is in the application of advanced statistics to large multi-site neuroimaging datasets to study heterogeneity in specific patient subpopulations, identifying functional neural signatures relative to symptom change and associations with behavioural outcomes.
Previous Members
Collaborators
Prof Ian McKeith
I have a longstanding interest in all aspects of Lewy body dementias but in particular in matters relating to clinic-pathological diagnosis and therapeutics.
Prof Alan Thomas
Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Dr Greg Elder
I am a sleep researcher and Associate Director of Northumbria Sleep Research. I joined Northumbria University in March 2018 following post-doctoral work at Newcastle University and a short time as a lecturer at Teesside University.
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