Supporters

Dr Pearson is a lead for NeuroCoRe and has led in the recruitment and validation studies for ACEmobile. He is a Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry and works in West Devon for Devon Partnership NHS Trust being based in a community multidisciplinary team. He graduated from Bristol Medical School in 1983 and after a period as Principal in General Practice retrained in Psychiatry on the Peninsula. He conducts clinical trials in Alzheimer Dementia as part of DeNDRoN and is a regional specialist in Huntington's Disease. He is interested in developing computerized assessments of cognition, to further our understanding of dementia disease processes.

NeuroCoRe are based within Professor John Zajicek's Clinical Neurology Research Group and Professor Zajieck provides academic support and leadership to the group. Prof Zajicek is currently Vice Dean Research and Chair of Clinical Neuroscience with the Plymouth University Peninsula Colleges of Medicine and Dentistry, and Honorary Consultant at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. He is also Chair of the UK NIHR Nervous System Disorders Speciality Group, Board Member of the MRC Neuroscience and Mental Health Board, Co-Director of an NHS research network and Director of the Peninsula Clinical Trials Unit. His group are interested in the development of new ways of measuring clinical aspects of neurodegenerative diseases. He is investigating new ways of testing treatments for neurodegenerative conditions and runs a prestigious NIHR programme grant to develop new methods for testing treatments in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Dr Carroll is a consultant neurologist with a specialist interest in movement disorders and Parkinson's disease. Her research interest is in mechanisms of cell death and neuroprotective strategies, particularly the potential neuroprotective effects of cannabinoids and endocannabinoid modulators. She has active collaborations locally and nationally investigating other aspects of PD pathogenesis including pre-symptomatic bowel alpha-synuclein expression, lysosomal pathways and mitochondrial dysfunction. She has previously contributed to studies of surgical intervention in Parkinson's disease (PD), both in the UK and in the US, and planned and managed a clinical trial of cannabinoids for symptomatic therapy in PD. She is currently part of the NIHR-funded team investigating clinical trial methodology in neurodegenerative diseases, investigating outcome measures of various parameters in PD, including computerised assessments in collaboration with NeuroCore. She is joint PD research director for SW DeNDRoN and as such has responsibility for overseeing clinical research capability in the peninsula and the development of a balanced clinical trial portfolio. She is PI on a number of clinical studies and has overseen the development of a PD DNA bank (1500 samples) and PD clinical research register.

Dr Deeprose is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Plymouth. She completed a PhD looking at cognition in older age. She has an interest in the development of computerized measures of cognition and has worked in industry for Cognitive Drug Research, developing computersied cognitive assessments.

Dr. Jeremy Hobart is a Consultant Neurologist at Derriford Hospital, and Professor at the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry. His clinical sub-specialist interest is the diagnosis and management of people with multiple sclerosis. His medical training was at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and neurology training was undertaken predominantly at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square. He is also President of the South Devon branch of the MS Society and Consultant Neurologist to Plymouth Albion Rugby Club, probably the finest rugby football team on earth (not quite). Jeremy Hobart's research interest is rating scales for measuring health outcomes. His training in health measurement and rating scale science has included a PhD in Psychometrics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Prof Donna Lamping), and post doctoral attachments to the University of Chicago (Prof Ben Wright) and, more recently, a secondment to Murdoch University Perth, Western Australia (Prof David Andrich) sponsored by a Royal Society of Medicine Ellison-Cliffe Travelling Fellowship. By a combination of chance and design, this training means that Jeremy is one of only a handful of clinicians formally trained in rating scale science. He has led the development of a number of rating scales, has published widely in this area, and holds over £5 million in research grants.

Dr Simon Rule is a Consultant Haematologist. He qualified in Nottingham and trained in London and Australia. Dr Rule's specialist area of expertise is lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system. He runs the national trials in a Mantle Cell Lymphoma, which is the most aggressive form of lymphoma. There are four national studies into this nationally and two are co-ordinated from Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust where Dr Rule works. Dr Rule has published more than 70 papers.

Dr Helen Neilens is the Research Advisor for Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and provides support and training in all aspects of clinical and health services research. In addition Dr Neilens is also a Research Design Consultant for the Research Design Services funded by the National Institute of Health Research. In 2005 she completed a PhD in Psychology with a particular interest in cognition and reasoning and has numerous years of experience conducting academic research prior to her roles in the NHS.