Professor Gráinne McAlonan appointed as new Director of the NIHR Maudsley BRC

Grainne McAlonan

Professor Gráinne McAlonan has been appointed as Director of the NIHR Maudsley BRC. Gráinne has been Interim Director of the BRC since last summer. The NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and hosted by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London.

Professor McAlonan is Theme Lead for Child Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. In December 2022, the NIHR Maudsley BRC received a £41m award taking us to March 2028.

Professor Gráinne McAlonan says,

“Mental health research demands and deserves excellence to innovate and extend benefit as widely as possible. In our NIHR Maudsley BRC, we have an incredible and unmatched concentration of resources and expertise including our lived experience advisory groups, which drives discoveries and delivers not only to our local community but nation-wide. It is therefore a great privilege to be appointed Director of this Centre. I am excited to have the opportunity to harness the skills, knowledge and passion within our BRC to plan and deliver a transformative agenda to secure mental health across the lifespan; one firmly rooted in science with the lived experience voice at its core.”

David Bradley, CEO of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“Congratulations to Gráinne on her appointment as Director for the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. Gráinne has already done fantastic work in her role as Deputy Director translating research into clinical practice. We know her passion and expertise will continue to bring us closer to our mission of advancing mental healthcare to improve lives.”

Professor Matthew Hotopf CBE, Executive Dean, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, says,

“Gráinne is a superb scientist and wonderful leader, who brings a rare combination of basic and clinical neuroscience applied to mental health. She is therefore ideally equipped to lead the BRC.”

Professor Richard Trembath, Executive Director of King’s Health Partners said:

"I'm delighted Professor McAlonan has been appointed. I am excited about the continuing impact her leadership will have on patients and the communities we serve as we focus on integrating physical and mental health across everything we do."

Professor Gráinne McAlonan is a clinical Professor of Translational Neuroscience at King’s College London. She is also a clinician in the National ADHD and Autism Service for Adults in the Maudsley Hospital and Research Lead for the Behavioural Developmental Psychiatry Clinical Academic Group, King’s Health Partners. Professor McAlonan is also a principal investigator within the pan-European Autism Innovative Medicine Studies-2-Trials (AIMS-2-Trials) the world’s largest grant for autism research.

Gráinne studied medicine at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London and completed a PhD in behavioural neuroscience at the University of Cambridge.  After clinical and research posts in the UK, she worked for over a decade in the University of Hong Kong before returning to the IoPPN.

 


Tags: Staff News - Child Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Disorders -

By NIHR Maudsley BRC at 10 May 2024, 16:14 PM


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