About
A brief description of who you are and what you do.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- Neurovascular biology
- Blood-brain barrier
- Haemoglobin neurotoxicity
- Immune-brain signaling
- Neuroimmunology
Current research
Southampton Clinical and Experimental Neurology Team
SCENT is interested in the molecular basis, cell biology and clinical implications of the interaction between blood and brain in two main areas:
Neurovascular biology
Interaction between blood and brain at the neurovascular interface is highly regulated in health, to protect the delicate brain. However this is dysregulated in neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, contributing to progression. For instance systemic inflammation may trigger more marked changes in blood-brain barrier function in these conditions, leading to alterations deeper within brain tissue.
Haemoglobin neurotoxicity
After brain haemorrhage, neurovascular reactivity is altered and extracellular haemoglobin is released, leading to pathology in brain areas distant from the bleed. This is most especially seen after subarachnoid haemorrhage since blood-clot derived factors can diffuse easily across the cerebrospinal fluid compartment, and major blood vessels travel through the same space. Related research topics of interest to our group are superficial siderosis and the role of haemolysis in neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.
The main aim is to improve the quality of life of people with central nervous system conditions by developing novel monitoring tools, outcome prediction algorithms and new treatments. Work is performed closely with patients in clinical studies to confirm the identity of key pathways that have treatment potential.
"During neurological disease, brain tissue including vessels and blood within are destroyed, leading to inflammation, release of haemoglobin and blood-brain barrier compromise. This gets worse when there is infection and inflammation outside the brain. We study these pathological processes across a range of neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and brain haemorrhage."
Inflammatory brain conditions (click here)
The blood brain-barrier represents the interface between the brain and the circulation. In the normal healthy brain, systemic inflammation signals across the blood-brain barrier leading to changes in the brain itself. This effect is more marked in the presence of inflammatory and neurodegenerative brain diseases, the commonest of which are multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease respectively. The team studies the interplay between brain, blood and inflammation in health and disease, in order to be able to predict, prevent and treat brain inflammation.
Haemorrhagic brain conditions (click here)
During brain haemorrhage there is a catastrophic breach in the blood-brain barrier. Blood is released into the brain, forming a clot. Unlike the rest of the body, the brain has a limited ability to deal with extravasated blood. As the blood clot degenerates, it leads to a local buildup of toxic substances. The team studies the effect of blood on brain cells and how this can be treated.
Further information can be found at the following links:
Southampton Clinical and Experimental Neurology Team (SCENT - click here)
International consortium (HATCH consortium - click here)
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
Bachelor of Medicine programmes
Lecturer on BM4 & BM5 (Neurology, Immunology)
Examiner: Objective Structured Clinical Examination
Bachelor in Medical Science project supervisor (1-3 / year)
Master in Medical Science project supervisor (1-2 / year)
Question setting
Standard setting
Assignment marker
Personal academic tutor
Student Selection Interviewer
Postgraduate taught programmes
Research project supervision on:
MRes Clinical and Health Research
MSc Audiology
MSc (Neurosciences)
Postgraduate research
Main PhD supervision:
Matt Morton (MRC-funded, completed)
Charlotte Stuart (multiple source-funded, completed)
Aravinthan Varatharaj (MRC-funded, completed)
Ben Gaastra (Guarantors of Brain & Institute for Life Sciences-funded, completed)
Co-Supervisor:
Hannah Warming (Gerkut Trust & Institute for Life Sciences-funded, completed)
Jinxuan Bai (School of Mathematical Sciences, ongoing)
Internal examiner
Clinical academic training
Neurology Integrated Clinical Academic Training Lead
Academic Foundation Programme (Neuroscience) supervision
Academic Clinical Fellow (Neuroscience) supervision
Clinical Lecturer (Neuroscience) supervision
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
These are the public-facing activities you’d like people to know about.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
Ian Galea is a Consultant Neurologist and Professor in Clinical & Experimental Neurology in Southampton. He qualified as a medical doctor from the University of Malta and completed general professional training in the UK. He then trained in basic neuroimmunology completing a PhD with Professor Hugh Perry, alongside neurology specialist training in the Wessex region. During his postdoctoral years he worked on the blood-brain barrier, making seminal observations in subarachnoid haemorrhage, paraneoplastic neurological disease and multiple sclerosis. He founded an international consortium of investigators in subarachnoid haemorrhage which is led from Southampton, and more recently a national consortium studying the neurology of covid. He has published papers in top journals such as Brain, Neurology, Annals of Neurology, J Exp Med, BMJ, Nature Reviews and the Lancet family. Several research papers have been selected for editorial comment and won prizes. Ian is on the steering committee of several national studies, the editorial board of Brain Behaviour Immunity and is NIHR Regional Multiple Sclerosis Specialty Lead. In Southampton, he actively champions imaging research and clinical academic training.
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.