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.

Can the damaged brain repair itself? Prof Chandran's talk at TED Global (Feb 2014)

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)

• 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)
• Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2022)

At the University of Edinburgh, Professor Chandran is:

• Dean of Clinical Medicine (2021-present)
• Head of Edinburgh Medical School (2022-present)
• Director of Edinburgh Neuroscience (2016-present)
• Director of the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research (2009-present)
• Director of the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic (from its inception in 2011-present)
• Director of the MS Society Edinburgh Centre for MS Research (2015-present)
• Programme Lead of the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Director Prof Giles Hardingham (2017-present)

Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences

Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research

Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic

MS Society Edinburgh Centre for MS Research

MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine

Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences (Neuroregeneration)