Sebastien is head of service of the neurology-neurosurgery team at Willows Referral (Solihull, UK) and neurology consultant for Vet3D.

He graduated from the Veterinary School of Toulouse, France, presenting his thesis on ‘Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteins in the Dog’, awarded by the French Companion Animal Veterinary Association and the University of Medicine Paul Sabatier of Toulouse.

Following an internship and a residency in Neurology and Neurosurgery at Fregis small animal hospital in Paris, Sebastien was awarded the Diploma of the European College of Veterinary Neurology in 2006 and the following year he was recognised as an RCVS Specialist in Veterinary Neurology.

Sebastien has special interest in neurosurgery and in particular advance spinal surgery using virtual surgical planning and 3D printing technologies. This has been pioneered in veterinary medicine by Vet3D.

He is the past associate editor for neurology of the Journal of Small Animal Practice and a past member of the Credential and Examination Committee of the European College in Veterinary Neurology. Sebastien is currently associate editor at Frontiers in Veterinary Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Sebastien has published numerous original scientific papers most recently focusing on 3D printing in spinal surgery, book chapters and regularly contributes to CPD courses and lectures nationally and internationally.

Tom is a veterinary neurologist and neurosurgeon who completed his specialist training at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) where he helped establish a brain and tissue bank to advance research into neurological diseases.

Tom spent two years as a lecturer in neurology and neurosurgery at the RVC before moving to private practice. Areas of interest include the management of canine epilepsy and use of 3D printed guides and implants in complex spinal surgeries.

Tom has published in a variety of areas and presented at multiple national and international conferences. Prior to his veterinary career Tom completed a PhD in neuropharmacology at Cambridge University and worked in the pharmaceutical industry performing commercial strategy analysis for leading pharmaceutical companies. Tom subsequently joined the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) as their Business Pipeline Manager providing a critical link between the regulatory body and global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Tom has always had a strong interest in the impact of mental health and wellbeing on the performance of individuals and organisations within the veterinary sector. This naturally progressed to an interest in Human Factors and the impact they have on those involved in veterinary care.

Prior to my current teaching focused role, I have had a varied research career. I trained initially as a biochemist with undergraduate studies in Sheffield and completed a PhD in biochemistry at the University to Kent at Canterbury (1990).

This was followed by post-doctoral research posts working on the distribution and function of the D2 dopamine receptor (Canterbury) and changes in GABAA receptor subunit composition in response to chronic exposure to alcohol and benzodiazepine drugs  (King’s College, London).

I came to Bristol in 1995 to work with Profs Graham Collingridge, Jeremy Henley and David Jane on the pharmacology glutamate receptors and from 1999 acted as the Scientific Officer for the newly established MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, based in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Bristol, a position I held for the next 14 years. I am now  a Senior Lecturer in the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, teaching across the neuroscience and pharmacology courses; understanding how a drug works is central to understanding how to use it. I have a particular (and personal) interest in the underlying mechanisms of epilepsy and how they affect treatment options and have taught this topic across our veterinary, medical and dental programs.

Steve Fitzjohn graduated with a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Anatomy from the University of Bristol.

He carried out research into mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and the alterations seen in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease using rodent models, at the Universities of Bristol and Manchester.

He then worked on several neuroscience projects at Eli Lilly and Co’s research centre in Windlesham UK, before returning to academia as a teaching-focused lecturer at the University of Bristol.

Steve now contributes to teaching on both basic science and clinical programmes, including delivering multiple sessions to 2nd and 3rd year BVSc students. He teaches on numerous topics, with a focus on basic pharmacology principles, antimicrobials, inflammation and neuropharmacology.

He also carries out pedagogical research into learning and assessment, and currently overseas teaching delivered by the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience.

Mark is the founder of Trainetics, an innovative training and consultancy company that specialises in Human Factors and Leadership. Having started his career in investment banking, Mark moved towards his passion for flying in becoming pilot for British Airways.

He has flown a multitude of commercial aircraft for over 20 years whilst additionally operating in both a training and examining capacity for the airline and the regulator. Through this role he developed a keen interest in human factors, leadership and how complex systems impact high performing and safety critical professions.

Mark’s focus on scaling quality and fostering cultures of belonging has been integral to Trainetics’s success. He is passionate about the role of business as a force for good in the world, purpose, conscious leadership, conscious capitalism, social value and diversity & inclusion. At every step, Mark puts people first, building tight-knit teams and nurturing individuals. He wants Trainetics to be a place where people come to improve themselves and thrive, professionally and personally.

BM FRCS(Neurosurgery)

Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children

Lead Bristol/SW Children's Epilepsy Surgery Service

Visiting Professor Bristol Robotic s Laboratory, University of West of England

Honorary Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

I trained in medicine and surgery at the University of Southampton before undertaking Neurosurgical training in Southampton and Copenhagen.

I undertook specialist fellowship training in paediatric neurosurgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and a research fellowship in paediatric CNS tumour genetics at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt centre at the University of Toronto. I have been consultant neurosurgeon in Bristol since January 2004.

Presently I lead up the Bristol/West of England epilepsy surgery unit at the Bristol Royal Hospital for children. I have research interests in CNS tissue culture and repair, mechanisms of human and artificial consciousness, quantum photonics in the CNS and neurosurgical therapy in low revenue environments. I have been part of the transitional medicine group at Bristol veterinary school, researching epilepsy surgery in canines and marine mammals since 2019.

Prof. Dr. Marios Charalambous is an ABVS American, EBVS European and RCVS recognized specialist in veterinary neurology.

Following the completion of his small animal internship at Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital at the University of Cambridge (UK), he worked as a general and emergency clinician in private practices in the UK.

During this period, he earned a post-graduate diploma in advanced neuroimaging from the University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology (UK). Dr. Charalambous started his neurology training at Cornell University (USA) and later joined Ghent University (Belgium), where he completed an ACVIM and ECVN approved residency in neurology. Successfully obtaining credentials and passing examinations independently for both American and European Colleges, he also earned a Ph.D. at Ghent University, focusing on innovative therapies for epileptic seizure disorders.

Throughout his career, Dr. Charalambous engaged in various training programs and educational courses across the UK, USA, and globally. He is a prolific author with numerous scientific articles in high-impact journals and book chapters.
Additionally, he has lectured in numerous courses and conferences worldwide. Notably, he served as the primary author and Chair of the first-ever ACVIM Consensus Statement on the management of canine and feline emergency seizure disorders. Dr. Charalambous has been recognized as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and has served as a representative of the European Society of Veterinary Neurology (ESVN). Dr. Charalambous is currently the Chair of the ACVIM neurology credentials committee.

Presently, Dr. Charalambous works as a referral neurology consultant at Blaise Referral Hospital in Birmingham (UK), and is also a research associate at the University of Veterinary Medicine (TiHo) in Hannover (Germany) as well as a visiting professor at the UNIC University of Nicosia (Cyprus).

Robin Franklin, a graduate of the Royal Veterinary College, is a founding Principal Investigator at Altos Labs Cambridge Institute of Science and Honorary Professor of Stem Cell Biology in the School of Biology at the University of Cambridge, having previously been Professor of Stem Cell Medicine at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. His laboratory has made many pioneering discoveries on the mechanisms by which adult CNS progenitors replace lost oligodendrocytes, describing how their function declines with ageing and how this can be reversed.

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the Royal College of Pathologists and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

He is also one of the very small number of vets who is a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is the recipient of the 2014 Kennel Club International Award, the 2017 Barancik International Prize for Research Innovation and the 2021 King Faisal Prize for Medicine.

Tom Harcourt-Brown BVSc DipECVN FRCVS is a European Specialist in Veterinary Neurology. He is head of the neurology department at Langford Vets, University of Bristol.

He has a strong interest in clinical research attempting investigate common clinical conditions such as canine encephalitis, disc disease and lumbosacral disease.

His primary current research focus is implantable vagus nerve stimulators (VNS) in dogs with drug-resistant idiopathic epilepsy with the aim to make this a widely available treatment option.

Dr. Daisuke Hasegawa is a Professor at Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University (NVLU), Tokyo.

He obtained his DVM in 1999 and PhD in 2003, and advanced from Assistant Professor to Full Professor in Veterinary Clinical Neurology and Veterinary Radiology. His career focuses on brain diseases, especially epilepsy, epilepsy surgery, and brain tumors in dogs and cats.

He has published over 95 papers (48 top/correspondence) and contributed to a textbook of epilepsy edited by Drs. Munana and De Risio.

He was elected de facto Diplomate of Asian College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Neurology) and also a member of IVETF in 2017. Awards include the Jhun and Mary Wada Prize (Japan Epilepsy Society) and George Fleming Prize (The Veterinary Journal). He has secured 11 grants and serves in major societies including the Japanese Society of Veterinary Neurology and the Japan Epilepsy Society.

I am a Paediatric Neuroradiologist at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and Neuroradiologist at Southmead Hospital, Bristol. I am a Visiting Senior Lecturer in the in the School of Psychology, University of Bristol.

I qualified in 1993, obtained MRCP(UK) and commenced radiology training in 1996, gaining FRCR in 1999. I have been a consultant since 2003 following a two-year fellowship in adult and paediatric neuroradiology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen’s Square, London and the Hospital for Children, Great Ormond Street.

I support the Children’s Epilepsy Surgery Service at BRHC which is one of the four designated national units for the surgical treatment of paediatric focal epilepsy. I supervise advanced imaging with high 3 Tesla MR scanning, and ictal SPECT. I also support the adult epilepsy surgery program at Southmead Hospital where amongst other roles I provide a functional MRI service for presurgical mapping of motor and language functions.

I am the local PI for the Multicentre Epilepsy Lesion Detection project coordinated from the Institute of Child Health and have been active in implementing automatic lesion detection software generated by the project.

I also have a specialist interest in the developing brain on fetal and neonatal MRI and participate in a fetal brain MRI service to the South West of England and South Wales. I have a large medicolegal practice relating to perinatal brain injury.

Ben is a biomedical engineer with a focus on the development of healthcare technologies for human rehabilitation and enhancement.

One recent example is the EarSwitch – a novel ear based assistive technology designed to enable those with diseases such as Motor Neurone Disease to communicate.

He has a particular interest in peripheral nerve interfaces and has developed implants to restore control of the urinary bladder after spinal cord injury and to provide sensory feedback in upper limb protheses.

In 2023 he co-founded the Bath Institute for the Augmented Human to advocate for the holistic design of neurotechnology taking into consideration the technological, regulatory, societal, and ethical implications.

He is currently Head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath and Vice-President (Academic) of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. He has advised UK Government and the Ministry of Defence on the risks and opportunities associated with human augmentation and recently co-launched the OECD policy toolkit on neurotechnologies as the UK representative.

Linda is a T-cell immunologist who leads the Clinical T-cell Lab, which is based in the Bristol Veterinary School, Faculty of Life and Health Sciences in the University of Bristol. Linda originally graduated as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Bristol in 1996.

During the time that she worked as a veterinary surgeon, she developed an interest in T-cell immunology, which led her to complete a MSc in Human Immunity at the University of Liverpool followed by a DPhil in T-cell immunology at the University of Oxford.

In 2006 Linda was awarded a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship and then in September 2013, she moved to the University of Bristol to take up a chair in Translational Immunology. Work in the Clinical T-cell Lab is focussed on understanding the role that T-cells play in health and diseases such as auto-immunity, cancer and viral infection, and includes translational projects aimed at the development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of diseases such as autoimmunity and cancer. The lab has a broad range of expertise including the in-depth analysis of T-cell cross reactivity, T-cell epitope identification and pMHCI tetramer technology. 

Angela graduated from the University of Parma in Italy.

After several years of clinical experience in general practice and small animal hospitals across Italy, she moved to Switzerland to pursue a residency programme in Veterinary Neurology at the University of Bern.

Upon completing her residency, she successfully passed the examination for the European College of Veterinary Neurology (ECVN), and went on to work as a Senior Clinician in Neurology and Neurosurgery at the  university’s veterinary teaching hospital. Between 2013 and 2017, she undertook a research project  focused on infectious diseases of the nervous system at the Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (University of Bern), earning a PhD in this field.

In 2017, she moved to the UK,  where she led the neurology and neurosurgery service at a busy referral hospital in the South. She then joined Langford Veterinary Services at the University of Bristol as Senior Neurologist. In this role, she actively manages referred neurological cases, supervises residents, and participates in clinical teaching and research. Her clinical interests span all areas of small animal neurology, with particular emphasis on inflammatory central nervous system disorders and neurosurgery.

Bryony is Head of Nursing services at Cave Veterinary Specialists in Somerset where she has worked for over 12 years. During studying for a PGCert in Small Animal Rehabilitation in 2013, Bryony developed a passion for supporting neurological patients during their recovery and became Senior Neurology Nurse when the Neurology department opened at Cave shortly after.

In 2024, Bryony was successful in obtaining VTS Neurology status and although now spends more time in a non-clinical environment, still enjoys nursing patients under the care of the Neurology department at every opportunity.

Dr Granger received his veterinary degree from the National Veterinary School of Alfort in 2002, where he completed an internship and neurology and neurosurgery training to become a ECVN Dipl in 2006.

He led the neurology and neurosurgery service at the Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital, University of Cambridge until 2008 and obtained his PhD there in neuroscience in 2012. He continued his research and teaching as Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol from 2012 to 2016.

Dr Granger is now Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Veterinary College where his research is based. His main research interest is around treatments for spinal cord injury in dogs, including transplantation of cells for spinal cord regeneration and repair, clinical trials for new therapies, and neuromodulation for incontinence control. He has tested unique procedures in dogs and large animal models, such as implantation of sacral neuroprostheses for incontinence control. He also works as a clinical neurologist in a private referral centre in Bristol providing state-of-the-art diagnostics and treatments for companion animals with neurological conditions where they can deliver cell therapy for spinal cord injury, advanced investigations for incontinence treatment and advanced neurosurgical procedures.

BVSc PhD DVA DiplECVAA MRCVS

Nicki graduated from Bristol Vet School in 2000, and stayed on to undertake an internship and then residency in veterinary anaesthesia. She completed her PhD on pain processing and analgesia in 2012 and holds the RCVS certificate and diploma in Veterinary Anaesthesia and the European Diploma in Veterinary Anaesthesia.

She has worked in both private and university referral hospitals in senior anaesthesia positions and currently is a senior clinical anaesthetist at Langford Vets.

Simona graduated from the University of Milan, Italy with a dissertation on epilepsy in cats.  She developed an interest in Neurology and epilepsy during her studies, having rescued a cat with head trauma that became epileptic. After graduation, Simona started a Neurology internship at the University of Athens, Georgia, United States.

She then moved to the University of Hannover, Germany, to complete a Neurology residency. Simona gained the Diploma of the European College of Veterinary Neurology (DipECVN) in 2005.

She also completed a PhD on Neuronal Dysplasia as a cause of refractory seizures in dogs and cats.

She has worked in two leading UK referral practices as a Neurology Specialist since 2005.

Simona has developed and is the course director of a distance learning course in Neurology and has been a telemedicine consultant since 2019.

She has a passion for teaching and has taught Foundation and Higher Education Students since 2011. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, and she has also lectured in several national and international congresses.