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Thomas Massey

Dr Thomas Massey

WCAT Fellow, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences

School of Medicine

Email
MasseyT1@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29206 88353
Campuses
Hadyn Ellis Building, Room 2.44, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ

Overview

I am a clinical academic Fellow in Neurology in the School of Medicine.

My research interest is the molecular pathogenesis of Huntington's disease and other repeat expansion disorders. Most of these conditions are characterised by progressive neurodegeneration and none currently has a disease-modifying treatment.

The overarching aim of my research programme is to leverage insights from human genetics, cell models and biochemistry to identify new therapeutic targets that can cut across a number of repeat expansion disorders. We use a combination of next-generation sequencing techniques, induced pluripotent stem cell models, CRISPR/Cas9 editing and biochemistry to go from clinical phenotypes to molecular mechanism.

As a Neurologist I see patients in clinic and have been heavily involved in clinical trials in Huntington's disease. My hope is that by understanding the molecular details of repeat expansion disorders we can develop novel treatments with the potential to slow or prevent these incurable diseases. 

My work is supported by the Guarantors of Brain, Academy of Medical Sciences, Medical Research Council (post-doctoral research training Fellowship), Association of British Neurologists (Patrick Berthoud Charitable Trust Fellowship), Brain Research Trust and the European Huntington's Disease Network.

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

Articles

Book sections

Websites

Biography

I moved to Cardiff in 2013 as a Welsh Clinical Academic Training Fellow in Neurology. I completed my training in October 2021 and joined the Specialist Register. I am currently supported by a Guarantors of Brain Fellowship and Academy of Medical Sciences starter grant. I have previously been supported by clinical research training Fellowships from the MRC (2016-2019), and the Patrick Berthoud Charitable Trust/Association of British Neurologists (2016-2019).

I trained in Medicine at Oxford University, graduating in 2009 with Distinction, and passed MRCP (UK) in 2012 and the Neurology Specialty Certificate Examination in 2020.

Prior to Medicine I studied Biochemistry, first as an undergraduate at Cambridge University and then as a graduate student at Oxford University. I was awarded my D.Phil in 2004.