Professor George Kirov
Clinical Professor, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences
- kirov@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2068 8465
- 2.47, Hadyn Ellis Building, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
Prof Kirov's research focuses on the role of copy number variations (CNVs) and high-throughput sequencing in neuropsychiatric disorders. In his clinical work he supervises the ECT delivery in Cardiff and provides second opinion for affective disorders.
Currently Prof Kirov focuses on analysing the CNVs in all 500,000 participants in the UK Biobank. The CNVs have been called and analysed their role in disease and phenotypic differences, and the results have been published.
The results are also available on my repository page where they are updated when appropriate. Some results can be checked interactively: https://kirov.psycm.cf.ac.uk/
Biography
Born in Bulgaria
1980-1986: Medicine at the Medical Academy in Sofia
1989-1992: Training in Psychiatry in the UK, MRCPsych
1996-1999: Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship, Cardiff
1999-2001: Wellcome Advanced Fellowship, “Association studies in manic depressive illness using DNA pooling”.
Aug 2002: PhD, Cardiff University: “Association studies in manic depressive illness using DNA pooling.”
2001-2010: Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, Cardiff University, Cardiff
2010-2014: Reader at the Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, Cardiff University
2014–current: Professor at the Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, Cardiff University
Professional memberships
MRCPsych, MAcadMed, WKL Society
Committees and reviewing
Module Leader: ME3085: "The Scientific Basis of Psychological Medicine" at the Psychology and Medicine Intercalated Degree in Cardiff University
Director of Clinical Training at the MRC Centre
University Ethics Committee member
Educational Supervisor
Publications
We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.Teaching
Teaching and personal tutoring of medical students.
Organising an annual Summer School in Brain Disorders Researc.
supervising higher degrees student.
Module Leader on the course “The Scientific Basis of Psychiatric Disorders” on the modular Psychology in Medicine Intercalated Degree at Cardiff University since 2015.
External Examiner for Masters Degrees and Postgraduate Diplomas at King’s College Hospital London 2003-06, and Queen’s University Belfast 2019-23.
PhD examinations as an external examiner in the UK and abroad.
Recruitment: I took part in large collections of parent-offspring trios samples of families with manic depressive and schizophrenic probands. Currently these number about 1120 families. I work on copy number variation (CNVs) in these disorders and have PhD students who use the data: Kimberley Kendall and Matthew Bracher-Smith. This is my main research interest. Several loci have received support through my work on CNVs and this effort is on-going with analysis of de novo occurring CNVs and sequencing, which is now led by Elliott Rees.
ECT research: This is my main clinical research. I am a member of the Royal College Commettee for ECT. Previous interests include lithium therapy and its effect on the thyroid gland and the kidneys.
I have published a book with real stories about ECT, to improve the public perception of this treatment.
Engagement
Public engagement: I am determined to improve the public profile of ECT. I have published the book Shocked in 2020 which describes individual stories of patients who have had ECT.