Professor Suvankar Pal (BSc(Hons) MBBS(Distinction) MRCP(Neurology) MD(Res) PGCME FHEA FRCP)
Professor of Neurodegenerative Disorders and Clinical Trials & Honorary Consultant Neurologist
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic
- Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research
Contact details
- Mobile: 07940 230846
- Email: suvankar.pal@ed.ac.uk
- https://www.twitter.com/suvankarpal
Address
- Street
-
Room FU303J
Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Chancellor's Building, The University of Edinburgh - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
Background
Suvankar Pal is Professor of Neurodegenerative Disorders and Clinical Trials and Honorary Consultant Neurologist. He is co-lead investigator of the UK wide innovative multi-arm multi-stage MND SMART trial, the Scottish Motor Neuron Disease Register (CARE-MND), a Deputy Director at the Anne Rowling Clinic, Co-Investigator of the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Clinical Lead for Neurology at NHS Forth Valley.
His clinical and research interests are focused on improving outcomes for people with neurodegenerative disorders, including accelerating early and accurate diagnoses, evaluating atypical presentations, leading population-based disease registries for longitudinal deep clinical phenotyping, digital and wet lab biomarker development/reverse translation, and delivery of innovative clinical trials.
Qualifications
Suvankar graduated in Medicine with Distinction in Clinical Sciences, and Neurosciences, from King’s College London in 2001, completed basic medical training at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (Hammersmith Hospital and National Hospital for Neurology), and Royal Free Hospital, before completing his Doctoral research investigating novel molecular diagnostic strategies in Prion disease and supporting recruitment to the PRION1 trial at the MRC Prion Unit Institute of Neurology UCL. He completed higher specialist training in neurology in Edinburgh and was appointed to a Consultant Neurologist position in 2011 at NHS Forth Valley and the University of Edinburgh. Suvankar completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education from UCL/Royal College of Physicians in 2012 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He was awarded an inaugural NHS Scotland Research Fellowship in 2012, and appointed to a Clinical Senior Lecturer Position at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences in 2018. He was awarded a Personal Chair in Neurodegenerative Disorders and Clinical Trials at the University of Edinburgh in 2023.
Responsibilities & affiliations
Co-lead Investigator Motor Neurone Disease - Systematic Multi-Arm Adaptive Randomised Trial (https://www.mnd-smart.org)
Co-Lead Investigator Scottish Motor Neurone Disease Register (CARE-MND) (https://www.care-mnd.org.uk)
Deputy Director (Neurodegeneration) Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic (https://www.annerowlingclinic.org)
Co-Investigator UK Dementia Research Institute (https://ukdri.ac.uk/) - Motor Neuron Disease Research Theme Co-Lead
Clinical Lead for Neurology NHS Forth Valley (https://nhsforthvalley.com/health-services/az-of-services/neurology/)
Co-Chair ACORD Fellows Academy (MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL (https://www.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk/our-research/neurodegenerative-diseases/acord-collaboration/mrc-clinical-trials-unit-acord-fellows-academy/)
Undergraduate teaching
Lead for Year 2 MBChB Command & Control Module
Postgraduate teaching
Co-Chair ACORD Fellows Academy (https://www.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk/our-research/neurodegenerative-diseases/acord-collaboration/mrc-clinical-trials-unit-acord-fellows-academy/)
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Current PhD students supervised
Dr Johnny Tam - MRC Clinical Training Fellow
Dr Hatice Bozkurt - Rowling Scholar
Mr Isaac Chau
Past PhD students supervised
Dr Jane Lumsden
Dr Neil Watson
Dr Emily Beswick
Dr Briony Waddell
Dr Monica Icaza Valenzuela
Dr Harriet Ingle
Research summary
- Delivery of innovative clinical trials for neurodegenerative disorders including co-lead investigator for MND SMART (www.mnd-smart.org)
- Comprehensive longitudinal clinical registries for neurodegenerative disorders (including MND, dementia)
- Reverse translation/Development and validation of sensitive and specific digital and blood based biomarkers
- UK Dementia Research Institute MND Research Theme co-lead
Affiliated research centres
Project activity
MND SMART Clinical Trial (https://www.mnd-smart.org)
CARE-MND (https://www.care-mnd.org.uk)
UK Dementia Research Institute MND Research Theme (https://ukdri.ac.uk/research-themes)