Dr Benedict Michael awarded prestigious lectureship for work on COVID-19

Congratulations to Dr Benedict Michael, who has been awarded the 2022 Royal College of Physicians Linacre Lectureship for his work on the neurological complications of COVID-19.

The Linacre lecture was established by the Royal College of Physicians in 1990 and named after its first president, Dr Thomas Linacre. It is awarded competitively each year to a member under the age of 40.

Dr Michael is a Senior Clinician Scientist Fellow and leads the Infection Neuroscience Lab at the Institute for Infection Veterinary and Ecological Sciences  and an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at The Walton Centre.

In 2020 he led the first nationwide surveillance studies of the neurological complications of COVID-19 in adults and of children published in the Lancet Psychiatry and Lancet Adolescent and Child Health. He also provided expert comment on the emerging topic across UK and international media.

He currently co-leads the £2.3 million UKRI-funded COVID-Clinical Neuroscience Study, which is working to better understand the disease mechanisms of these neurological complications of SARS-CoV2.

He has also influenced the international clinical research agenda through his work on the WHO Expert Forum, leading the Global Brain Health Clinical Exchange Platform for the WHO, and chairing the Acute Care Task Force for the Global COVID-Neuro Coalition.

Dr Michael said: “This pandemic has resulted in immeasurable human suffering, but if there can be any silver lining, it is undoubtably that this represents humanity’s first chance to understand the impact of pandemic infection on the brain, not just clinically, but also at an immunological, virologic, genetic, and neuroimaging level. This is not humanity’s first pandemic, and it will not be our last. The lessons we learn from this are needed now and will also be pivotal in our capacity to face the next.”

Dr Michael will present his lecture, entitled ‘Humanity’s First Chance- Understanding what pandemic infection can do to the human brain,’ at the annual RCP conference in London later this year.

Image credit: The Encephalitis Society

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