Hugh Perry

Professor Hugh Perry is Professor of Experimental Neuropathology at the University of Southampton.

He trained as a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford, 1991-1977, where he obtained his B.Sc. and D.Phil. He remained at the University of Oxford as a Locke fellow of the Royal Society, 1982-1986, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow (1986-1995) and Professor of Experimental Neuropathology, 1996-1998. His research interests are in the field of interactions between the immune system and nervous system, and how inflammation contributes to the outcome of neurological and psychiatric disease.

His recent work has demonstrated how systemic infection, disease and inflammation play a role in driving the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. He has wide expertise in preclinical models of diseases of the nervous system and the translation of these findings to the human condition. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers.

Professor Hugh Perry currently holds grants from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK focusing on the role of inflammation in chronic neurodegenerative disease. He has sat on research advisory and funding panels for a number of different charities and funding agencies and chaired the Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience panel of the Wellcome Trust, 2004-2007.

Professor Perry has acted as a consultant for biotechnology (British Biotech, Nurin Ltd, BioVex Ltd, Inflazyme) and pharmaceutical companies (Celltech, UCB, Novartis, Eisai) in the area of neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative disease. He is currently chair of the Medical Research Council (UK) Neurosciences and Mental Health Board, a member of MRC Strategy Board and chair of UK Dementia Platform Oversight Board. Professor Hugh Perry was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 2005, Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, 2014, was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2006-2012, and recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, 2011.