Published: 08 March 2019

A research career that complements clinical practice

Peter is a consultant neurologist and Associate Professor in Trinity College Dublin. He leads the Computational Neuroimaging Group (CNG) in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute and he is the medical patron of the Irish Motor Neuron Disease (MND) Association. Peter is also a member of the UK MND Association Research Advisory Panel and the steering committee of Neuroimaging Society in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

He won a HRB Emerging Investigator Award (EIA) in 2017.

‘This prestigious award has enabled me to set up a small independent research group to pursue patient-centred translational research using cutting edge neuroimaging methods. My clinical experience and direct engagement with patient charities serve as a constant reminder of the urgency of any motor neuron disease related research and helps me to identify the most pressing research priorities’.

‘The HRB emerging investigator award has not only enabled me to recruit very talented young physicians to my group but also to establish an internationally competitive research infrastructure. As a clinician-scientist, I am in a privileged position to apply the latest technologies to detect subtle brain changes in clinically well-characterised patient cohorts’.

'Beyond the academic interest of describing patterns of disease propagation, the practical objective of our work is to develop viable diagnostic and monitoring protocols which can be used in clinical trials, provide an earlier diagnosis, and predict disease trajectories’.

‘The HRB grant also enables me to engage in high-profile international collaborations which are indispensable to deliver on complex research projects and acquire new research skills which can be applied to Irish cohort patients and transferred to PhD students and medical colleagues’.

‘The HRB EIA grant also facilitates the dissemination of our research findings at high-profile international meetings and in high-impact peer-reviewed publications.

'This award has provided a unique opportunity for me to pursue ambitious, clinically-relevant and patient-centred clinical research and exchange research skills with leaders of the field’.

Peter Bede MD PhD MRCP
Associate Professor
Trinity College Dublin