Nigel P. Leigh BSc, MB, BS, PhD, FRCP, FAAN, FMedSci

Nigel Qualifying at the London Hospital Medical College in 1970, Professor Nigel Leigh undertook a PhD with Professor David Marsden FRS. He was appointed to the University Chair of Neurology at the Institute of Psychiatry (now King’s College London) in 1989 where he established a research programme in Motor Neurone Disease (MND; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS) to understand the causes, consequences, and treatment of MND. The King’s MND Care and Research Center was the first center in the UK funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) and became a model for multi-disciplinary care worldwide.

Nigel established a DNA bank for MND linked to an extensive clinical database; developed a programme of functional and structural imaging; contributed to the development of riluzole, the only disease-modifying treatment in MND; and led the NNIPPS (Neuroprotection and Natural History in Parkinson Plus Syndromes) study, a randomized clinical trial and prospective cohort analysis of nearly 800 patients with ‘Parkinson Plus’ syndromes. He led the LiCALS trial and has contributed to the design and supervision of many Industry-led trials. With Professor Irene Higginson OBE FMedSci (Cecily Saunders Institute, King’s College London) he developed a research programme in palliative care in neurology.