The British Neuropathological Society funds a large number of grants through various award schemes. This page provides information on the scale of our activities. For more information on how to apply, please click here.
Supporting Excellence in Neuropathology
The BNS awards grants and bursaries each year to support research, education and training in neuropathology. Funding is available for research projects, travel, attendance at BNS meetings and student electives, with a strong emphasis on supporting early-career researchers and clinicians.
The table on the left summarises the total value of BNS research grant funding awarded each academic year for the past 5 years.
Generous funding from the BNS enabled Irina Vazquez-Villasenor to investigate “Neuronal Senescence as a Contributor to Neurodegeneration in Motor Neurone Disease”. This study aimed to determine whether a persistent DNA damage response and senescence pathway activation are features of motor neurone disease (MND).
Irina presented her research at the BNS meeting in 2016 and was awarded a prize for her poster. A manuscript of this work is currently under review in NAN.
Applicants in previous years
2024
Spring 2025 (20k grants):
Simona Jogaudaite “Dissecting the role of early pre-tangle-tau aggregates and astrocytes in Alzheimer’s disease” Imperial College London
Roxana Carare “”Leptomeninges extend along olfactory nerves across the cribriform plate” University of Southampton
Autumn 2024 (20k grants):
Matthew Clarke “Posthumous molecular characterisation of terminal high-grade gliomas occurring in paediatric, adolescent and young adult patients” Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research, London
Zoe Moore “Does systemic infection modulate astrocyte function in Alzheimer’s disease?” University of Sheffield
Spring 2024 (5k grants):
James Hennegan “The role of FcyRIIb in α-Synuclein Toxicity and Propagation Through the Brain” University of Southampton
Nuria Seto-Salvia “Proteomic analysis of human DYT1-TOR1A dystonia brains: a new approach for diagnostic pathology.” University College London
Claire Gee “Determining the subtype of cerebral T cells in dementia with Lewy bodies” University of Southampton
Jade Lucas “Assessing the cellular and pathological determinants of disease duration in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis using multiparametric Imaging Mass Cytometry analysis” UK DRI University of Edinburgh
Bethany Cro “T-cell Response in Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy- Related Inflammation. University of Southampton
Ben Arrowsmith “Paracrine regulation of the adenohypophysis: histological features of Folliculostellate cells & their role in normal pituitary gland & pituitary neuroendocrine tumours.” Walton Centre, Liverpool
2023
| Name | Institution | Project title | Award |
| Gabrielle Cruickshank / Kathryn Urankar | Bristol | Can p16 immunostaining predict the CDKN2A deletion status in neuropathological malignancies? | £5,000 |
| Simon Deacon / Simon Paine | Nottingham | The development of confident nanopore-based intra-operative classification of CNS tumours | £4,996.68 |
| Casmir Turnquist / Olaf Ansorge | Oxford | Spatial transcriptomics of mesenchymal chondrosarcoma (MCS) | £5,000 |
| Jonathan Attwood / Gabriele Carmine De Luca | Oxford | Long-term neuropathological outcomes of traumatic brain injury in veterans | £5,000 |
| Elliot Kearney / David Parkinson | Plymouth | Testing the role of macrophages in driving schwannoma tumour growth. | £4,787 |
| Yen Goh / Zane Jaunmuktane | UCL | Optical clearing and 3D imaging of skin tissue to improve small fibre neuropathy diagnosis | £4,965 |
| Teisha Bradshaw / Rina Bandopadhyay | UCL | Investigation of CoAlated proteins in neurodegenerative disorders | £5,000 |
| Patrick Cullinane / Sebastian Brandner | UCL | Nanopore sensing of α-synuclein post-translational modifications | £5,000 |
| Saisha Patel / Karen Duff | UCL DRI | Characterising the Molecular Signatures of thorn-shaped astrocytes in neurodegenerative diseases using Spatial Transcriptomics | £4,917 |
| Asem Sharef / Adele Pryce Roberts | Cardiff | Investigation of APOE44-related astrocytic phenotypes in human post-mortem tissue | £4,946 |
2022
| Applicant Name | Institution | Title | Value |
| Ebanks/ Bandopadhyay | UCL | Investigation of the role of lipid dyshomeostasis in Parkinson’s disease: comparison with with other related neurodegenerative diseases | 5,000 |
| Todd/ Outero | Newcastle | Quantification of nuclear alpha-synuclein with DNA double strand breaks in cases of Dementia with Lewy Bodies and controls. | 4,896 |
| Robinson/ Kurian | Bristol | Association between Genetically Proxied Imaging-Derived Phenotypes and Glioblastoma Risk | 5,000 |
| Shamsi/ Adams | Keele | Establishing scalable, in vitro models for assessing neuropathological responses to nanotherapies | 4,865 |
| Smith/ Erskine | Newcastle | Using a novel in vitro model of mitochondrial dysfunction to translate neuropathological observation to therapeutic development in mitochondrial epilepsy | 5,000 |
| Van Meter/ Highley | Sheffield | Chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the population and MND-TDP patients. | 5,000 |
| Vinel/ Marino | Queen Mary | Characterisation of glioblastoma-induced sarcopenia. | 4,990.56 |
| Walker | Newcastle | Investigating the role of cellular senescence in Lewy body dementia | 4,650 |
| Matthew Clarke | Inst Canc Res Lonodn | The classification and characterisation of high-grade gliomas in teenagers and young adults. | 5000 |
| Benjamin Cooze | Swansea | Identifying gene targets and biological pathways that dictate the extent of neuronal loss in multiple sclerosis. | 4200 |
| Hussain/ Carare | Southampton | si RNAs in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases | 5,000 |
| Kennedy/ Troakes | Kings | Intensive physical activity stress as a risk factor for ALS – a neuropathological investigatio | 5000 |
| Olkhova / Erskine | Newcastle | Investigating the mechanisms underlying neuronal dysfunction and neurodegeneration in mitochondrial disease | 5000 |
2021
| APPLICANT | INSTITUTION | TITLE | VALUE | ||
| Vinton Cheng/ Azzam Ismail | Leeds | Histological and molecular characterisation of the hypoxic and inflammatory microenvironment at the brain tumour margin | £5,000 | ||
| Sarah Howard/ Jessica Teeling | Southampton | Investigating the role of neuroinflammation on the accumulation and spread of tau pathology | £3,903 | ||
| Alexander J Matthews/ Kathryn Urankar | Bristol | Investigating an Immunohistochemical Surrogate Marker Me3″ to Distinguish Oligodendrogliomas from Astrocytomas” | £5,000 | ||
| Alex Waldman/ Gabriele De Luca | Oxford | Biomarkers and molecular mediators of neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis | £5,000 | ||
| Zeinab Abdi/ Tammaryn Lashley | UCL | Posterior cortical atrophy; a pathological characterisation | £5,000 | ||
| Mayen Briggs/ A Lakatos | Cambridge | Human tissue validation of astrocyte phenotypes and pathological states relevant to ALS pathogenesis | £5,000 | ||
| Annelies Quaegebeur | Oxford | Characterisation of microglial activation and synapse loss in progressive supranuclear palsy | £4,956.84 | ||
| Alexander Bampton/ Rina Bandopadhyay | UCL | Using in situ hybridisation to detect and visualise novel cryptic exons and to delineate the spatial relationship between cryptic exons and dementia pathologies | £4,952 | ||
| James Minshull/ A Robinson | Manchester | APOE genotyping from formalin fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue – Maximising the use of donated human brain tissue | £4,802.30 |
2020
| APPLICANT | INSTITUTION | SUPERVISOR | TITLE | VALUE £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rina Bandopadhyay | UCL | n.a. | Investigation of the pathological significance of vesicular dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease | £5,000 |
| Rachel Ann Kline | Edinburgh | Thomas Wishart | Investigating therapy-driven changes in cell populations at spatial resolution in glioblastoma brain tumours | £5,000 |
| Shoaib Ali Ajaib | Leeds | Lucy Stead | Investigating therapy-driven changes in cell populations at spatial resolution in glioblastoma brain tumours | £4,800 |
| Carmine Antonio Donofrio | Manchester | Federico Roncaroli | Pathological and molecular stratification of ACTH-secreting pituitary tumours to predict recurrence after bilateral adrenalectomy | £4,595 |
| Lara Marrone | Sheffield | Mimoun Azzouz | Identification of compounds reversing lysosomal pathology in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia type 15 | £5,000 |
2019
| APPLICANT | INSTITUTION | SUPERVISOR | TITLE | VALUE £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devina Patel | UCL | Rahul Phadke | Developing a multiplex in situ hybridisation assay | £5,000 |
| Conceicao Bettencourt | UCL | Janice Holton | Parkinsonian epigenetic networks (PARKepiNets) | £5,000 |
| Sarah Howard | Southampton | Jessica Teeling | Investigating the role of neuroinflammation on the accumulation and spread of tau pathology | £4,908.16 |
| Hanyi Jiang | Imperial | Javier Alegre Abarrategui | Development of assays for the direct visualization of early TDP43 protein aggregates in post-mortem tissue | £5,000 |
| Elisavet Velentza-Almpani | Imperial | Javier Alegre Abarrategui | Spatiotemporal distribution and relationship to brain immunity of early tau aggregates | £5,000 |
| Charlotte Dawson | Sheffield | Robin Highley | Clinical and pathological relationships in motor neurone disease | £5,000 |
| Toomey / Lashley | UCL | Tammaryn Lashley | Targeting lipids as potential biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease | £4,650 |
| Olivia Jennings | Sheffield | Julie Simpson | Blood-brain barrier dysfunction the the ageing brain | £5,000 |
| Connor Scott | Oxford | Olaf Ansorge | Investigating the transcriptome of the giant pyramidal Betz cell in human post-mortem brains | £5,000 |
2018
| APPLICANT | INSTITUTION | SUPERVISOR | TITLE | VALUE £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ketan Dipak Jetwa | Nottingham | Ian Scott | High-resolution structural and spectroscopic magnetic resonance imaging of the nucleus basalis in health and disease. | £4,000 |
| Kirsty McAleese | Newcastle | Johannes Attems | The impact of concomitant TDP-43 pathology on tau pathology and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. | £4,795 |
| Miles Frost | Southampton | Roxana Carare | The pattern of adrenergic innervation in human brains. | £5,000 |
| Kastytis Sidlauskas | Southampton | Delphine Boche | Microglia/macrophage immunophenotypes in glioblastoma and their association with clinical outcome. | £5,000 |
| Eleanor Schaber | Sheffield | Robin Highley | DNA hydroxymethylation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a pathological study into the role of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and its related enzymes. | £3,500 |
| Shivank Keni | Edinburgh | Colin Smith | A radiological, histological and molecular characterisation of the blood brain barrier in glioblastoma multiforme. | £5,000 |
| Matthew Nolan | Oxford | Olaf Ansorge | Somatic mosaicism of the human ALS Brain. | £4,980 |
| Rohith Srinivasan | Sheffield | Julie Simpson | Dysregulation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) expression in the ageing brain | £5,000 |
2016
Postdoctoral small grants:
Athanasios Alexandris, Differential expression of galanin in the human cholinergic basal forebrain in Lewy body dementias, AD and dementia of mixed origin (AD/DLB)
Lida Zoupi, Grey Matter synaptopathy in MS: Synaptic profiles in damage and repair
Lindsey Sinclair, Are visual hallucinations in Alzheimer’s a result of decreased cholinergic input to visual processing areas of the brain?
2014
March round
Suvi Hokkanen, Genetic risk factors of the old-age hippocampal sclerosis, Cambridge
Julie Simpson, Neuronal Senescence as a Contributor to Neurodegeneration in Motor Neurone Disease, Sheffield
Difei Wang, e-Learning the molecular pathology of brain tumours, Royal London
2013
March round
Dr Yvonne Dombrowski (Dr Denise Fitzgerald), Queen’s University, Belfast. Identifying neuropathological mechanisms underlying paralysis following Treg depletion.
Dr Ashirwad Merve (Prof Silvia Marino), Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine, London. Role of c-Myc in choroid plexus tumours.
2012
March round
Veronica Roberts: Is head shaking in horses, like trigeminal neuralgia in people, caused by trigeminal nerve root demyelination?
Claire Rice: Relevance of mitochondrial sirtuins to the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis
Simon Paine: Novel co-regulated gene networks in epileptic cortex: insights into FCD and brain development
September round
Harry Haynes, Frenchay Hospital, Bristol: Identification of EGFR/EGFRvIII mutations in glioblastoma multiforme as progonostic and predictive biomarkers
Owain Howell, University of Swansea/University of Cardiff: Development of a tissue microarray for biomarker discovery in multiple sclerosis