Global NeuroID
This research group focuses on neurological infectious diseases in a global context, aiming to improve the diagnosis and management of brain infections in children and adults from the highest burden settings.
Researchers:
Dr Ali Alam
Honorary Clinical Fellow
I am a medical trainee based in London. My research focuses are neurological infectious diseases and global health. I have worked on volumetric seizure prediction modelling in encephalitis. I am also interested in emerging zoonotic brain infections. My other research interest is in healthcare provision for displaced populations. In 2019, I worked in the Kutapalong refugee camp, researching gaps in healthcare provision for the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals (Rohingya) population.
Dr Tina Damodar
Wellcome Trust DBT Clinical Fellow
Dr Tina Damodar is an Early Career Fellow (DBT/Wellcome Trust) at National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore in Southern India. Her research goals are focussed on simplifying diagnosis of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in children by developing clinical prediction models for common treatable causes. Additionally, with the International seed funding from Encephalitis International, she is also investigating host mRNA signatures in children with scrub typhus meningoencephalitis.
Charlotte Fuller
Paediatric Trainee
I am a paediatric trainee based in Yorkshire, with a keen interest in infectious diseases and global child health. Prior to my specialty training, I spent time as a clinical research assistant with the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust and Blantyre Malaria project in 2018-19. My MD studies, supported by the RSTMH Early Careers Grants Programme, focuses on the cardiac function and fluid management of Malawian children admitted with non-traumatic coma.
Dr Alice Fortune
Academic Foundation Doctor
Dr Stephen Ray
Paediatric Neuroscience Lead
I am an infectious diseases paediatrician and clinical lecturer. My research aims to improve the diagnosis, management, and outcomes of critically ill children with life-threatening infections, with a focus on brain infections, particularly in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC).
Academic Foundation (F1/F2) then Clinical Fellowship (ACF ST1-3) with The Liverpool Brain Infections Group sparked my focus on the aetiology and outcomes of paediatric non-traumatic coma in LMIC. These were a springboard to my Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD Fellowship on this subject, with the same research group. My PhD studies were primarily based in Malawi (2018-2022), collaborating with the Blantyre Malaria Project and Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust. During this period I was also PI on a national study investigating the neurological manifestations of COVID in children (Lancet Child Health). This work has received national and international recognition and awards (European Academy of Neurology, British Paediatric Infection and Immunity group [x2], The Guardian, The Independent).
I joined the Department of Paediatrics in Oxford in 2023 and continue my interest in improving diagnostic and prognostic markers (including host response) and better understanding the pathobiology driving poor outcomes in central nervous system infections in African children. I supervise four students [two undergraduate Masters, one AFP and one MD] and lead the UK paediatric Encephalitis Guideline update. This work is supported by funding from ESPID, bioMérieux, NIH and collaborations with The Universities of Oxford, Liverpool, San Francisco, Rochester and Michigan.
Dr Bhagteshwar Singh
Clinical Research Fellow
I am a clinical research fellow in the Brain Infection and Inflammation Group, and a senior trainee in Infectious Diseases, General Internal Medicine & Tropical Medicine. I am currently based at Christian Medical College Vellore, India, coordinating the multi-country NIHR Global Health Research Group on Brain Infections, and the MRC-funded COVID-Neuro Global research programme in Brazil, India and Malawi.