RELATED PROJECTS

Using theoretical neurobiology to understand neurological disease

OTHERS IN RELATED SPECIALTIES 

Dr Sophie Binks, ACF in Neurology (CMT)

Dr Fielder Camm, ACF in Cardiology (CMT)

Dr Nicole Cianci, ACF in Gastroenterology (IMT)

Dr Laura Watts, ACF in Rheumatology (CMT)

RELATED PAGES

ACFs in Internal Medical Training (IMT)

I became interested in research during my undergraduate medical degree at University College London, during which I completed both an intercalated BSc and a PhD in Neurobiology. The latter was based in Queen Square, opposite the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, where I regularly attended the Neurology Grand Rounds. This was a great opportunity to spend time in an environment with an exceptionally high concentration of both clinical and academic neurosciences. The ACF programme offers the chance to continue training in both domains, to maintain research momentum while completing postgraduate medical training, and to prepare for academic independence. 

My ACF time is split into blocks of 9 months of clinical time and 3 months of research time, each year over three years. During my research time, I develop mathematical and computational models of brain function and apply these to the analysis of behavioural data.

I regularly attend several lab group meetings and seminar series in Oxford, alongside work with international collaborators. This has included supervising a visiting PhD student and acting as an external supervisor to a PhD student at another institution.

Throughout the year, I attend international scientific meetings (and have taken part in scientific podcasts). This has included:

• an invited role in a working group at the Sante Fe Institute,
• a keynote lecture at the Leiden Active Inference Symposium, and
• teaching at the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology Computational Neuroscience Course, in Japan, and at the Advanced Course in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, in Italy.

One of the (possibly the most) challenging things about clinical academia is finding time to devote to progression in both research and medical practice. I have found the academic clinical fellowship immensely helpful in that it provides time to develop and implement research ideas without sacrificing clinical progression.

One of the things that drew me to Oxford was the extensive neuroscience community, spread out across several different departments, including multiple people I was keen to work with.

Strikingly, clinicians are a core part of the research community, just as academics make up core parts of the clinical teams in the local hospitals. I felt that this would be a great opportunity to bring some of the research themes I had developed during (and since) my PhD more firmly into a clinical domain, without losing touch with the basic science that underwrites this research.

June 2025