Research 7 July 2022

Protecting time for neurosurgery research

Great progress has been made since we provided funding to give consultant neurosurgeon, Mr Aminul Ahmed, protected time to research ways to improve outcomes for patients with traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.

In 2020-21, we funded a post for a new senior research neurosurgery lecturer for three years. Mr Aminul Ahmed, a consultant neurosurgeon, took up the role in September 2021. Thanks to our funding, he has been developing his research programme in advanced therapies for neurological disease, with the aim of translating this research into advanced care for neurosurgical patients at King’s. 

“While the research programme is still in its early days, I’m excited about the collaborations we’re building to further gene therapies for spinal cord injury and neurodegenerative disease.”
Mr Ahmed

He is liaising with experts from across the globe to design the world’s first clinical trial of a gene therapy for spinal cord injury. His recent analysis of patients who have undergone surgery for lower back pain will soon become the largest-ever study of treatment outcomes for this group of patients. 

Work is also underway to design a number of other projects, including one that aims to use human live neural tissue to study the repair potential of neural stem cells and another that plans to explore the development of minimally invasive robot-assisted neuroengineering therapies for neurological disorders. 

The ultimate aim of this groundbreaking work is to translate research into world-leading care for neurosurgical patients at King’s. 

“I am grateful to King’s College Hospital Charity – as a result of this funding, I have protected time to dedicate to this research, which would otherwise be challenging in one of the busiest neurosurgical units in the UK.”
Mr Ahmed
Branded heart on yellow background

Reducing the risk of sight loss

Thanks to our funding, leading surgeon Timothy Jackson has been using deep learning models to accurately predict when diabetic retinopathy, a disease in which the retina becomes damaged by raised blood sugar levels, would lead to a loss of vision up to three years in the future.
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