Biography
Suvankar Pal is Consultant Neurologist, and Professor of Neurodegenerative Disorders and Clinical Trials at the University of Edinburgh. He is co-lead investigator of the UK wide innovative multi-arm multi-stage MND SMART trial, the Scottish Motor Neuron Disease Register (CARE-MND), a Deputy Director at the Anne Rowling Clinic, a co-lead of the recently awarded MRC Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) in Clinical Trial Innovation and Clinical Lead for Neurology at NHS Forth Valley. His clinical and research interests are focused on improving outcomes for people with neurodegenerative disorders, including accelerating early and accurate diagnoses, leading population-based disease registries for longitudinal deep clinical phenotyping, digital and wet lab biomarker development/reverse translation, and delivery of innovative clinical trials.
Suvankar graduated in Medicine with Distinction in Clinical Sciences, and Neurosciences, from King’s College London in 2001, completed basic medical training at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (Hammersmith Hospital and National Hospital for Neurology), and Royal Free Hospital, before completing his Doctoral research investigating novel molecular diagnostic strategies in Prion disease and supporting recruitment to the PRION1 trial at the MRC Prion Unit Institute of Neurology UCL. He completed higher specialist training in neurology in Edinburgh and was appointed to a Consultant Neurologist position in 2011 at NHS Forth Valley and the University of Edinburgh. Suvankar completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education from UCL/Royal College of Physicians in 2012 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He was awarded an inaugural NHS Scotland Research Fellowship in 2012, and appointed to a Clinical Senior Lecturer Position at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences in 2018. He was awarded a Personal Chair in Neurodegenerative Disorders and Clinical Trials at the University of Edinburgh in 2023.
Suvankar is passionate about promoting equity of access, and diversity in research. He has a keen interest in education, mentorship, and training, and has successfully supported many undergraduate and postgraduate students from varying disciplines.
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