Pamela Shaw Explained

Dame Pamela Jean Shaw is a British consultant neurologist and professor of neurology at the University of Sheffield. She is the founder and director of the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), and in 2019 was appointed to lead the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre.^{[1] [2]}

Education

In 1979 Shaw graduated with first class honours in medicine from the University of Newcastle and was awarded several prizes during her undergraduate degree. She subsequently undertook further training in neurology at Newcastle, worked towards the award of Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom and was awarded an MD degree in 1988. Her doctoral work was on the neurological and neuropsychological complications of coronary bypass surgery.

Research and career

She specialises in the "molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and neuroprotection in disorders of the motor system (motor neurone disease and HSP)".^[3]

Since 1991, long-term funding from the Wellcome Trust has supported her research group to study the source of neurodegenerative disorders of the human motor system. They have been able to implicate various subcellular pathways and cellular features in susceptibility. In addition, they have screened candidates for potential treatment for these disorders. This work contributed to evidence underpinning the use of riluzole in motor neurone disease.

In 1997 she was appointed Professor of Neurological Medicine at the University of Newcastle and in 2000 she moved to the University of Sheffield as Professor of Neurology. She developed training and research in clinical neuroscience at Sheffield, building on the excellent clinical expertise in the department.

Shaw has been chair of the Clinical Research and Academic Committee of the Association of British Neurologists.

Awards

Shaw held a Wellcome Senior Fellowship in Clinical Science from 1991 - 2000 and she is currently a Senior Investigator at the NIHR.^[4]

In 2014, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.^[5]

In 2019 she was awarded the GL Brown prize lecture by the Physiological Society.^[6]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Professor Dame Pamela J Shaw . University of Sheffield . 26 May 2021 . 25 June 2021.
2. Web site: Meet our Team Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre . 2022-03-01 . NIHR - Sheffield . en-GB.
3. Web site: Dame Pamela Shaw DBE FMedSci. Academy of Medical Sciences. https://web.archive.org/web/20160801032357/http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/professor-pamela-shaw/. 13 June 2015. 2016-08-01.
4. Web site: Professor Pamela Shaw - SITraN . 2022-03-01 . sitran.org . en.
5. Web site: 11 Academy Fellows recognised in New Year's Honours 2014 . Academy of Medical Sciences . 25 June 2021.
6. Web site: Professor Dame Pamela Shaw delivers the GL Brown Prize Lecture 2019 . University of Oxford . 25 June 2021.