New Faces in the Clinic
Oct 2021: Meet the new staff that have recently joined the research team at the Clinic over the last few months.
Dr Rachel Blacow
Clinical Research Fellow
Rachel has joined the Clinic team as a Rowling Clinical Fellow. Rowling Fellowships are designed to enable doctors undertaking their speciality training to step away from clinical practice to experience clinical research. Rachel is working as part of the research team and will be working on the Clinic's research studies and trials portfolio.
Rachel's interest in research began during her intercalated degree in epidemiology. She completed her foundation training in South East Scotland. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she became involved in clinical trials as a Clinical Research Fellow at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow. At this time she took up a Research Associate position with the University of Glasgow, where she was involved in further Covid-19 research in association with the Covid-19 Genomics Consortium (COG-UK).
Rachel is an inspiring academic neuroradiologist and hopes to further her interests in imaging research during her Fellowship at the Anne Rowling Clinic.
Dr Alex Christides
Clinical Research Fellow
Alex has also joined the Clinic as a Rowling Clinical Fellow. Alex graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2019 with degrees in Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He completed his foundation programme in Lothian during the Covid-19 pandemic. Early in his career, Alex was involved in a research expedition to Bolivia looking at the effects of high altitude on physiology. This sparked a passion for research; he has since been involved in numerous laboratory and clinical projects.
He joined the Anne Rowling Clinic in 2021, and will be involved in clinical trials for multiple sclerosis and motor neuron disease. He is interested in data-science and how this can be applied to improve healthcare.
Dr Alex Symonds
Clinical Research Fellow
Alex originally studied neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh and went on to complete a Master's degree by research in neuroscience. He joined the Anne Rowling Clinic as a Rowling Clinical Fellow in 2021.
His previous research focused on the overlap between cognitive disorders and movement dysfunction. It was during this time he developed a passion for clinical work. Alex went on to study medicine at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 2019. After graduation, he moved back to Edinburgh to complete his foundation training.
Alex will be working on the Clinic's research trial and study portfolio, and continues to have research interests in movement disorders and cognition.
Micheala Johnson
Rowling Graduate Intern
In the summer of 2021 Micheala joined the Clinic as a Rowling Graduate Intern. The Graduate Internships are 12-month salaried positions designed to enable graduates at an early stage of their career to experience clinical research.
Micheala graduated from University of Bristol with a degree in Neuroscience. She has a keen interest in chronic neurological disorders and the development of hopeful new therapeutics.
While working as part of the research team at the Clinic, Micheala will be assisting with patient-based assessments and the processing of research data for various research studies and trials.