Sarah Tabrizi

Sarah Tabrizi describes her journey to setting up the UCL Huntington’s Disease Centre and her focused efforts to find an effective treatment for this devastating neurodegenerative disease.

Name Professor Sarah Tabrizi
Degree 

MBChB

Year of Graduation 1992

Your time at the University

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Sarah Tabrizi

I really loved my time at Edinburgh studying medicine.  I had done a degree in Biochemistry first and was slightly older when I started medicine and was very excited to be there.

I had started a PhD and then realised I very much wanted to do medical research, and an academic in the department I was doing a PhD in said you really need to get a medical degree if you want to work on human disease.  At the time Edinburgh Medical School was based around George Square and Forrest Road and the Royal Infirmary was by the Meadows and I lived very close by.  It was a great area of Edinburgh to live in, now even when I go back and visit and walk through the university it brings back wonderful memories.

I really did love medical school and threw myself wholeheartedly in. Those of you who knew me at time and remember me at medical school always said that I was very enthusiastic!

I particularly enjoyed doing neuroanatomy and that really started my love of neuroscience and then I went to the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh and did a neurology rotation under Charles Warlow and that cemented my love of neurology. Actually, it was Charles Warlow and Colin Mumford at the Western General Hospital who suggested I work under Anita Harding at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square, London because I had an interest in genetics.

Chris Haslett encouraged me to apply for the Golden Circuit rotation in London which was the Hammersmith, Queen Square, Brompton rotation and I was lucky enough to get on it, but I felt that I had enormous support in Edinburgh as a medical student.  I’ve made lasting friendships with people I was at university with and I go back and visit Edinburgh often.  In terms of why I chose Edinburgh, I’m actually from Edinburgh and I went to school there and I really just loved the city and I had gone away from Edinburgh to start my PhD in London and then I realised how much I missed Edinburgh so applying to Edinburgh Medical School was really an automatic choice.

It also allowed me to take my washing home at weekends and go shopping at my mum’s food cupboard when I ran out of money.

I really did love medical school and threw myself wholeheartedly in. Those of you who knew me at time and remember me at medical school always said that I was very enthusiastic!

Professor Sarah Tabrizi

Tell us about your experiences since leaving the University

I’m currently Professor of Neurology at the UCL Institute of Neurology where I’ve been Professor since 2009.  I am also the Director of the UCL Huntington’s Disease Centre and a joint Head of Department of Neurodegenerative Disease at the UCL Institute of Neurology.

Since I did my PhD in 1995-1996 as an MRC Clinical Training Fellow, I’ve been working on Huntington’s Disease which is a devastating neurodegenerative disease and in fact is the commonest genetic dementia worldwide.

I also look after patients with Huntington’s disease and do a Huntington’s Disease Multidisciplinary Clinic every week.

I lead a bench-to-bedside team within the Huntington’s Disease Centre that does wet-lab work right through to first-in-human clinical trials.

In terms of my career path, I did a degree in Biochemistry then I did Medicine, and then I did a very basic science PhD looking at mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegeneration at UCL as an MRC Clinical Fellow and in 2003, I completed all my neurology training, got my Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) and actually that’s when I set up the Multidisciplinary Huntington’s Disease Clinic at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

In that time I got a Department of Health National Clinician Scientist Fellowship with Charles Weissmann and John Collinge, and started my own independent research group in January 2003 as a clinician scientist. Following this I was lucky to get 10 years of independent fellowship funding, doing both laboratory science and translational research.  In 2009 I was promoted to Professor at UCL, in 2017 I founded the UCL Huntington’s Disease Centre with Professor Gill Bates which has the aim of doing bench to clinic research and to develop effective therapies for Huntington’s disease.

I am very focused on one disease and I’m very committed to finding an effective treatment for this disease. I’ve been looking after patients for over 20 years with Huntington’s disease and most of my patients over that time have died, and I’m very committed to being able to develop an effective therapy and because it’s a genetic dementia we have the future potential to one day prevent the disease in HD gene carriers.

I do feel that my training in Edinburgh, particularly in neuroanatomy and neurology, gave me enormous grounding for my future career.  Moving to do the Hammersmith/Queen Square rotation was very important advice. I really think the advice I got in Edinburgh was pivotal in my career and suggesting I move down to work in London.  I think my work at the moment is focusing on genetic therapies for Huntington’s disease and I am the global Principal Investigator of a first-in-man antisense oligonucleotide study working to lower the level of the mutant huntingtin protein in the brains of patients.

This has recently had quite a bit of media interest in December 2017 as results show that we were in fact able to lower the level of the mutant HD protein in the brains of patients with Huntington’s disease and this is very exciting for a neurodegenerative disease.

Alumni wisdom

I think it’s important to learn coping strategies to become resilient and that’s the most important tip for survival because you always get failures in everything you do.  As an academic, you get paper and grant rejections and you have to become resilient and cope with that.

I do think focus and tenacity are absolutely critical and it’s important never to give up and I think believe in what you are doing, and developing a passion for that, and mine is finding a treatment for Huntington’s disease and I think finally, try and make your work as much fun as possible because you do need to enjoy it because it takes up most of your working time.  I think it’s important to ask for advice and mentoring as you need it. Finally, this is more as you progress through your career, particularly as a doctor; never forget your loved ones, I think they really are the most important people in your life. Work is very important, but so are the people around you.

Related Links

BBC - Huntington’s breakthrough may stop disease (external link)

The Guardian - Excitement as trial shows Huntington's drug could slow progress of disease (external link)