The ABIRA Team

Co-Chairs

Professor David Menon

David Krishna Menon is Professor and Head of the Division of Anaesthesia, and Professorial Fellow in Medicine at Queens’ College, Cambridge. He is Principal Investigator at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre and at the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair in Cambridge, and Co-Chairs the Acute Brain Injury Program at the University of Cambridge. He is Chair of the European Brain Trauma Consortium and serves on the Executive of the International Neuro Trauma Society. He currently acts as Vice-Coordinator of the CENTER-TBI project, a €30 million FP7 European multicentre study of precision medicine and comparative effectiveness research in traumatic brain injury, and as Joint Director of the Cambridge NIHR Global Health Research Group on Neurotrauma. He has over a three hundred publications in peer reviewed journals, with a ‘h’ index of over 60, has contributed to major textbooks, and is one of two lead authors on a Commissioned Issue of the Lancet Neurology on Traumatic Brain Injury which was released at the European Parliament on the 7th of November 2017, and which has been used as a basis for briefing UK MPs in the All Party Parliamentary Group on Acquired Brain Injury.

Co-Chairs

Professor Valerie Pomeroy

Following qualification as a physiotherapist at the Cambridge School of Physiotherapy and holding a variety of clinical posts, Professor Pomeroy obtained a PhD from the School of Medicine, University of Southampton. Between 1996 and 2002 she was Senior Lecturer in Stroke Therapy Research at the University of Manchester and was also Director of The Stroke Association's Therapy Research Unit. Between 2002 and 2008 she was Professor of Rehabilitation for Older People at St George’s, University of London. In 2008 Professor Pomeroy took up the Chair of Neurorehabilitation at the UEA.

Staff

Dr Judith Allanson

Staff

Dr Andrew Bateman

Andrew has worked in research and clinical rehabilitation since 1990, the year he originally qualified as a Physiotherapist (East London). He completed a PhD in Neuropsychology in 1997 at University of Birmingham. He returned to University of East London for post-doc work on a study of exercise in brain injury. He has been leading the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation since 2002. Interests include outcome research, executive functions, assistive technology, dyspraxia, Rasch Analysis, rowing and brass bands. Also found on twitter @ozcboss & scoop.it!

Staff

Mita Brahmbhatt

Mita is the programme manager of the Brain Injury Healthcare Technology Co-operative (HTC) based at the University of Cambridge, and supported by the National Institute for Health Research.

After graduating in 2001 with BSc Honours in Business Information Systems, she challenged and developed her skills in various industry sectors. In 2007 she moved in to healthcare to fulfil a personal ambition to influence and shape health and wellbeing services. In this time, Mita has worked internationally with the World Health Organisation; nationally with the Department of Health and private companies; regionally with Strategic Health Authorities; as well as locally with Primary Care Trusts. Mita has enjoyed the challenges of working on key strategic drivers for the NHS including Major Trauma commissioning, and has valued her time as a volunteer wellbeing facilitator for the charity Freemind, based in Essex. In her current role, Mita has the advantage of putting ideas and innovations at the heart of everything she does, something that she would like to see translated in a safe and robust way across the healthcare industry to improve patient outcomes.

Staff

Elizabeth Chandler

Liz has an MSc in Physiotherapy and a BSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics. She first worked as a research scientist at the John Innes Centre before re-training and working as a rotational physiotherapist for the Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust. In 2011 she combined her interests and became a Research Therapist working on the clinical trials SWIFT Cast and FAST INdiCATE. In 2016 Liz took up the post of Clinical Movement Analyst at UEA.

Staff

Charlie Dorer

Charlie holds two undergraduate degrees in Psychology/Sociology and Physiotherapy (First Class Honours, 1995). More recently she completed an MPhil in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge (2014). The study used neuroimaging techniques to investigate structural and functional connectivity in the motor control system in later-stage traumatic brain injury. In addition to her studies, Charlie has worked clinically for over 17 years in the field of neurorehabilitation in the UK and abroad and holds a quality improvement Fellowship focusing on complexity in community neurorehabilitation. Charlie's current role is a SQuIRe Manager (Stroke Quality Improvement for Rehabilitation) for the East of England focusing on the implementation of the Integrated Community Stroke Service model.

Staff

Louise Gilbert

Louise is an Advanced Specialist Physiotherapist in the Early Supported Discharge Team for Stroke at the Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.

Staff

Dr Fergus Gracey

Fergus is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia in the Department of Clinical Psychology, seconded from his post as Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist in Cambridgeshire Community Services (NHS) Trust. He was formerly the Clinical Lead for the Cambridge Centre for Paediatric Neuropsychological Rehabilitation and lead psychologist at the Oliver Zangwill Centre.

Clinical and research interests are in neuropsychological rehabilitation, specifically self-regulation, identity, emotional adjustment and psychological therapy following brain injury, and he has published a number of papers and book chapters on these topics.

He is Principle Investigator for an NIHR funded study looking at the feasibility of a clinical trial of an Arts for Health approach to improving confidence and well-being post-stroke. Fergus holds a number of honorary positions and is a member of the BPS Division of Neuropsychology’s Policy Unit, the Board of Associate Editors of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, the Board of Trustees for Headway Cambridgeshire and is a Clinical Associate at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge.

Staff

Dr Nicola Hancock

Nicola has worked both nationally and regionally to develop stroke rehabilitation services and is currently pursuing an academic career in this field. She is a Lecturer in Physiotherapy at UEA and holds a first class BSc in Physiotherapy and a Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Education from the UEA. Nicola was awarded her PhD in July 2014. Her recent research has involved investigating reciprocal pedalling exercise after stroke.

Staff

Dr Alpar Lazar

Dr Lazar is an associate professor and principle investigator at the School of Health Sciences with a strong research interest in the significance of human sleep and circadian rhythmicity in brain health. With more than 15 years of experience in sleep research Alpar has studied sleep and cognition in children and adults presenting normal and pathological development and aging. Following his PhD studies at Semmelweis University Budapest where he investigated the sleep physiological correlates of Asperger syndrome, he soon joined the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, UK where he studied the genetics of sleep-wake regulation and chronotype. His work has contributed to a better understanding of the impact of sleep-wake homeostasis and circadian rhythmicity on brain activity and cognition. As he gradually became more interested in pathological aging Alpar joined Cambridge University where he investigated the role of early sleep disturbances in Huntington’s disease (HD), an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder and showed for the first time that sleep is one of the earliest homeostatic processes to go wrong in HD specific neurodegeneration. Alpar joined UEA by the end of 2016 and spearheaded the launch of the Sleep and Brain Research Unit. He has been awarded a Wellcome trust Seed Award in Science to establish his own group and study the impact of genetic risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s disease on sleep-wake regulation and cognition. Alpar leads on the Sleep and Brain Health Research programme at UEA.

Staff

Dr Kath Mares

Having qualified as a physiotherapist in 1993, Kath went on to specialise in the management and treatment of people with acquired brain injury, at what is now known as the Specialist Rehabilitation Services (SRS) in Norwich. In 2000 she started work as a Lecturer/Practitioner in Physiotherapy working between the SRS and the University of East Anglia (UEA). In 2005 Kath successfully gained the post of full time Lecturer in Physiotherapy at UEA. Leadership roles have included Course Director for the BSc in Physiotherapy, Course Director for the MSc in Stroke Recovery and most recently Lead for the NIHR funded MSc in Clinical Research. Kath recently completed her PhD evaluating the feasibility of Functional Strength Training for improving walking and upper limb function in people later after stroke. She has a keen interest in the use of motor learning theories for improving functional recovery after acquired brain injury and is currently seeking post-doctoral funding to develop this research theme further.

Staff

Dr Kate McGlashan

Dr Kate McGlashan MD, FRCP, is a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine based at the Colman Centre for Specialist Rehabilitation Services in Norwich and the Clinical Director for Rehabilitation for the East of England Trauma Network. Her main research background is in examining the impact of exercise on functional mobility after stroke.

Staff

Helen Morse

Helen has a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from Plymouth University and an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience. Helen has finished a role within the NHS and the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) promoting dementia research to re-join UEA as a PhD student. Funded by the Stroke Association, Helen will be exploring the feasibility of using a home-based computerised and assessment for spatial neglect post-stroke (supervised by Dr Stephanie Rossit, Prof Valerie Pomeroy and Dr Allan Clark).

Staff

David Payne

David holds a BSc Hons degree in Sport and Exercise Science which he gained in 2008 from Canterbury Christ Church University. During his time at Canterbury David had the opportunity to become part of the Sports Science Laboratory Team as a Junior Technician where he assisted in several research studies. After 2008 he worked for one year in a further education college in Kent and gained a PGCE. Up until August 2015 David worked as the Senior Sport and Exercise Science Technician at a college in west London where he helped to develop a sports science support network for the college’s academy athletes and coaching staff. In September 2015 David joined the UEA to become a Research Technician in Movement & Exercise at the School of Medical and Health Science.

Staff

Dr Stephanie Rossit

Dr. Stephanie Rossit joined UEA as a Lecturer in Psychology in 2013. She graduated in Psychology from the University of the Algarve (Portugal) and then went on to do a Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow investigating perception and action deficits in stroke patients who suffered from visual neglect. After her Ph.D. she undertook a post-doctoral research position at the Brain and Mind Institute at the Western University (Canada) using functional magnetic resonance imaging to study visuomotor control.

Dr. Rossit’s research is focused in studying the role of sensory information for perception and motor control and how these two processes interact. To answer these questions, she carries out behavioural and neuroimaging experiments with both healthy participants and neurological patients. Most of her neuropsychological research is focused on studying the deficits associated with visual neglect (a loss of awareness of the contralesional side of space present in up to 80% of stroke patients) as well in investigating the efficacy of techniques used to rehabilitate this severe neurological condition.

Staff

Dr Liz Warburton

Liz Warburton trained at Oxford University and Guys/St Thomas' medical school in London. She was appointed in 1998 as the first stroke physician in Cambridge.

Liz’s rehabilitation research interest centres around recovery from aphasic stroke. She was an MRC Training Fellow with Professor Richard Wise at the MRC Cyclotron Unit (Hammersmith Hospital) from 1992-96. Professor Wise’s group were one of the first to demonstrate mechanisms of neuroplasticity in recovery from aphasia using functional imaging techniques.

Liz has an ongoing collaboration with Dr Alex Leff (UCL) with an NIHR i4i grant to investigate whether an iterative ipad delivered therapy can enhance recovery of auditory comprehension following stroke (The ‘Listen-in’ study – main trial phase starting 2016).

Staff

Ingrid Watmough

Ingrid is an Advanced Specialist Physiotherapist in Stroke Rehabilitation at Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.

Postgraduate Research Students

Canan Yuksel

Canan has a BSc degree in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation from Istanbul University (Turkey) and an MSc degree in Physiotherapy (Neurorehabilitation) from Nottingham University. She started to her PhD at the University of East Anglia in October 2019 under the supervision of Professor Valerie Pomeroy, Dr Nicola Hancock and Dr Allan Clark. Canan’s PhD area focuses on neuro-mechanical correlates of movement recovery after stroke.

The ABIRA Team

Co-Chairs

Professor David Menon

Professor Valerie Pomeroy

Staff

Dr Judith Allanson

Dr Andrew Bateman

Mita Brahmbhatt

Elizabeth Chandler

Charlie Dorer

Louise Gilbert

Dr Fergus Gracey

Dr Nicola Hancock

Dr Alpar Lazar

Dr Kath Mares

Dr Kate McGlashan

Helen Morse

David Payne

Dr Stephanie Rossit

Dr Liz Warburton

Ingrid Watmough

Postgraduate Research Students

Canan Yuksel

Merve Kızılay

Co-Chairs

Professor David Menon

Co-Chairs

Professor Valerie Pomeroy

Staff

Dr Judith Allanson

Staff

Dr Andrew Bateman

Staff

Mita Brahmbhatt

Staff

Elizabeth Chandler

Staff

Charlie Dorer

Staff

Louise Gilbert

Staff

Dr Fergus Gracey

Staff

Dr Nicola Hancock

Staff

Dr Alpar Lazar

Staff

Dr Kath Mares

Staff

Dr Kate McGlashan

Staff

Helen Morse

Staff

David Payne

Staff

Dr Stephanie Rossit

Staff

Dr Liz Warburton

Staff

Ingrid Watmough

Postgraduate Research Students

Canan Yuksel

Postgraduate Research Students

Merve Kızılay