Prof Tom Gillingwater

Tom’s research focuses on understanding how the nervous system (and in particular motor neurons) breaks down in conditions such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Current projects are attempting to: i) understand disease mechanisms and develop new therapies for motor neuron diseases, including SMA and ALS; ii) explore common mechanisms that regulate the breakdown of the nervous system across a range of different neurodegenerative conditions (from motor neuron disease through to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease); and, iii) develop novel tools for visualising the human nervous system.

Tom graduated in Human Biology [Anatomy] from the University of Leeds before moving to the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a PhD in Neuroscience in 2001. He was appointed to a Lectureship in Anatomy at in 2004, was promoted to a personal chair in 2010, and became the 15th Professor of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh in 2015 (the Chair of Anatomy was founded in 1705).