2025 was quite the year for the UK DRI! 🙌 We celebrated new partnerships and launched fellowship schemes, welcomed internationally leading researchers to the institute, and showcased our science to a diverse range of audiences. Explore the highlights 👉 buff.ly/DZArDCK

PhD candidate Raafiah Mussa (@uclqsion.bsky.social) writes with Siobhan McLernon of South Bank University about the many challenges stroke survivors face and calls for increased ongoing NHS care and psychological support.

UCL spinout EpilepsyGTx has raised $33M Series A to advance its gene therapy EPY201 into clinical trials, offering hope for millions with refractory epilepsy. We are pleased to have supported this lab-to-market journey from the early stage. Details: bit.ly/4qXYGxJ

Artificial intelligence, using a blood test combined with brain images, has for the first time been able to identify two biologically distinct types of multiple sclerosis (MS), in research led by Dr @armaneshaghi.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social and @uclb.bsky.social spinout Queen Square Analytics

Professor Henry Houlden & Dr Karen Gunanayagam recently visited Dhaka and Bogura, providing specialist neurogenetics teaching and attending clinics as part of our active clinical and research partnership in Bangladesh 🇧🇩 @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social

Two new subtypes of MS found in ‘exciting’ breakthrough

We're looking back on just some of the incredible scientific breakthroughs that came out of our Faculty in 2025! 💬 The parts of the brain that are needed to remember words have been identified by a team of neurologists and neurosurgeons at @uclqsion.bsky.social. www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ma...

On the last day of 2025, join us in reflecting on some of the incredible breakthroughs from the Faculty this year! 🧠 In October, @uclqsion.bsky.social & @ukdri.ac.uk researchers found the time to carry out diagnostic MRI scans for dementia can be cut by a third. www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/oc...

2025 was full of breakthroughs at UCL: scientists developed new insights into Huntington’s disease and cancer, improved understanding of sight loss, revealed the Sun’s south pole, and discovered life beneath Antarctic ice. Read the highlights: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/dec/ucl-2025-year-review

As 2025 draws to a close, join us in reflecting on some of the incredible breakthroughs from the Faculty this year! 🧠 In November, a new brain atlas offering unprecedented detail in MRI scans was developed by @uclqsion.bsky.social researchers. www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/no...

This festive season, we’re once again asking our UCL community to help save energy! Last year, together we saved over 100 tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of planting nearly 2,000 trees. Let’s see if we can go even further this year. 👉More here: www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainable/... #GreenUCLPALS

A wonderful evening at the DNMD Christmas Drinks, bringing together colleagues from across the department. Thank you to everyone who joined us and best wishes for a well-deserved break and a happy festive season. 🎄🥂 @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclh.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social

The UCL Philanthropy Impact Report 2025 is here 🌍 Across 13 case studies and features, this year’s report spotlights the vital role of UCL’s alumni, donors and partners in creating a healthier, fairer and more sustainable world. 🔗 Read the report: https://bit.ly/44Dyqjk

⭐️ Congratulations to all the winners of our annual Recognition Prizes, announced last week during our annual conference! ⭐️ The prizes are designed to highlight excellence across the institute in a range of categories. Find out more about the winners here 👉 tinyurl.com/4catt2xu

Close to €10m in EU funding will support five @ucl.ac.uk researchers awarded ERC Consolidator Grants, backing projects in neuroscience, economics and criminal governance over the next five years. Find out more about the awards🔗⬇️ www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/de...

What a year it's been! 👏 In 2025, we have launched new centres, welcomed world-leading scientists, delivered clinical trial breakthroughs & developed new tools & technologies. Read our round-up to discover how we're driving progress for people affected by dementia⬇️ www.ukdri.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Research Fellow Vacancy, UCL London. Joins NIHR funded Rare Dementia Talk study using healthcare records to study access and outcomes for people with rare dementias. Closing date: 30th January www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/job/research...

As the festive season approaches, we’re once again asking our UCL community to help save energy and be in with the chance to win great prizes! Take part in the Christmas Switch Off 2025 🎄 www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainable/...

New collaborative paper out just before the holidays 🥳 academic.oup.com/braincomms/a...

Congratulations @drmfarag.bsky.social from @ucl-hd.bsky.social! 👏 @ukdri.ac.uk @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk 🔗 www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc...

Dr Alexander Cammack, also at University College London, is studying how fat levels change in brain cells affected by TDP-43, a protein linked to frontotemporal dementia (FTD). He’ll also look at whether dietary supplements could help protect these cells.

Dr Jessica Jiang at University College London is creating a new kind of hearing test that mimics real-world sounds to better understand how people process them. Because it doesn’t rely on language, it could be more inclusive for different communities.

Dr Christina Toomey is investigating how problems with fats in the brain might trigger or worsen frontotemporal dementia by studying brain tissue from people with the condition.

🚨We’ve just awarded Research Fellowships to nine outstanding early career scientists🚨 Meet the Fellows bringing bold ideas to life: www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/news/new-res...

Why do some people sleep walk? 😴 🚶 Professor Matthew Walker (@uclqsion.bsky.social) joins BBC Radio Ulster for an in depth discussion about nighttime wandering. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... (from 10 mins)

*New* Clinical Research Fellow vacancy - inherited neuropathies. Based at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Application Deadline 25/01/26 www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

🧠 UK DRI research is helping to shape global conversations on brain disease 🧠 Prof Sarah Tabrizi, UK DRI at UCL is featured in @nature.com 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025. Read more in here 👉 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

We're looking back on just some of the incredible scientific breakthroughs that came out of our Faculty this year. First up... Researchers at @uclqsion.bsky.social made global headlines by successfully treating Huntington’s disease for the first time. www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/se...

In rare disease research, or in underrepresented populations, limited data often means limited progress, but UCL researchers have been using AI to uncover genetic clues.

Defining neurological disease is less objective than often assumed. Simon Shorvon considers how confusion between symptoms and disease, shifting criteria, unstable classifications, and complex aetiology can undermine the medical model. tinyurl.com/5n8anfsc

#ICYMI The time to carry out diagnostic MRI scans for dementia can be cut to one third of their standard length, according to a new study led by @uclqsion.bsky.social researchers.

Absolutely thrilled & grateful to be awarded this prestigious ERC grant. None of this would have been possible without the remarkable team in my lab, past & present! Excited for the next steps of this important project.

I am very excited and grateful to have been awarded a Consolidator grant by @erc.europa.eu. We will use it to investigate the role of memory in perception, focused on the hippocampus. Thank you to all the colleagues in my team and the department for their support in making this possible!

My team are running the Peripheral Nerve Society's Instagram account this week: www.instagram.com/pnsociety1 If you like images of the nervous system, please check it out! #FluorescenceFriday @uclqsneuromuscular.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social

Clinical Research Fellow at UCL London with Mary Reilly working on inherited neuropathies and Trial Readiness for Charcot Marie Tooth disease. Closing date: 25th January www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/job/clinical...

Five UCL academics have received prestigious European Union-funded grants totalling close to €10 million from @erc.europa.eu. This will support their research for the next five years in projects covering economics, criminal governance, and neuroscience. www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/de...

£500 bursary for early career researchers / AHPs selected for an oral presentation Registration, accommodation and call for abstracts now open! UK Neuromuscular Translational Research Conference 2026 17/18 April, Cambridge, UK Check out our interesting agenda bit.ly/3XOjZF8

Was delighted to host Tzu-Ting (Tammy) Huang to give a talk and chat to everyone in the @jepsonlabucl.bsky.social at @ucl.ac.uk Institute of Neurology, she gave a fantastic talk for the UCL fly community & was great to reconnect after meeting at CSHL Drosophila Neurobiology programme in 2023! 🪰

Excited by neuroimaging and Lewy body dementias? Currently recruiting for a really exciting project @uclbrainscience.bsky.social with Martina Callaghan, Barbara Dymerska and Mitul Mehta (Kings) for a 4year funded PhD: More info and apply 👉 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

We're delighted that Professor Sarah Tabrizi (@uclqsion.bsky.social) is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025. Her team's global trial at @ucl-hd.bsky.social showed a new Huntington’s treatment could slow progression by 75%.

Congratulations to Stephanie Efthymiou on successfully being awarded a NBA small acorns fund - 'Validating exosomal RNA profiling methods in plasma and CSF of patients with multiple sclerosis', starting in January 2026

I am super thrilled to announce that I have been awarded an @erc.europa.eu Consolidator Grant to build novel interventions for #OCD. The plan is to exploit recent insights from computational neuroscience and closely work together with people with lived experience of OCD to create novel treatments.

I am incredibly honoured to share that I have been awarded the @ukdri.ac.uk PhD Prize at #Connectome 2025! @ucl-hd.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social

"For the first time I thought, this is a real breakthrough... I’d had this sword of Damocles over me, always thinking, when’s the disease going to strike?” Amanda Staveley shares what the pioneering Huntington's breakthrough at @uclqsion.bsky.social means to her.

A fired public-health official, a mosquito breeder and a baby with a smile seen around the world. These are just a few of the remarkable people chosen for Nature’s 10 2025 Check out the full list: go.nature.com/4rIQH8H

#BrainMeeting 🧠 Alert! 🎺 This Friday, December 12th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Mathias Pessiglione giving a talk entitled "Origins and consequences of cognitive fatigue" In person or online. For more information: www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event

UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology Hosts Neuromuscular Diseases Research Day 2025. A fantastic day bringing together clinicians, researchers and trainees to share insights and celebrate progress in NMD research. 🧠 @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social Read more: bit.ly/48N8tPI

📣Time to start thinking about abstract submissions and accommodation bookings for UK Neuromuscular Translational Research Conference 2026 17/18 April, Cambridge, UK. Check out the interesting 2026 agenda 📷https://bit.ly/3XOjZF8 (Image: Christin Hume @unsplash)

2025 has been an innovative year at UCL. As the year draws to a close, we’ve been reflecting on some of the ways UCL Innovation & Enterprise has been supporting the UCL community make an impact through knowledge exchange and innovation. Read: bit.ly/3K8UxXZ @ucl.ac.uk @uclnews.bsky.social

It’s inspiring to see how UCL is transforming lives through #KnowledgeExchange and we’re proud to play our part! Highlights include: 🧬 Advanced Therapies Symposium 🧬 Partnership enabling UK approval of first treatment for Friedreich’s ataxia Explore more: bit.ly/3K8UxXZ @uclenterprise.bsky.social