Benjamin Laura A

Dr Laura Benjamin is a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at The MRC Laboratory of Molecular and Cell Biology, UCL and an Honorary Consultant Stroke Neurologist at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London. She obtained her medical degree at University College London, and a Wellcome Trust funded PhD at The University of Liverpool with the Brain Infections Group, where she examined the epidemiology of HIV infection and stroke in Malawi. As a visiting fellow in the Wang lab (Washington University in St. Louis, USA), she also contributed to the discovery of Parvovirus 4 as a potential cause of encephalitis in Indian children, using next-generation sequencing techniques. Her most recent work is focused on understanding the cellular relationship between HIV infection and cerebral endothelial dysfunction in a 3D in vitro model. The ultimate aim is to translate findings to human cohorts to facilitate biomarker and drug discovery for HIV associated cerebrovascular disease. She is a co-Principal Investigator of a large longitudinal cohort study of HIV positive patients starting antiretroviral therapy in Malawi. She leads Malawi’s first stroke unit's set-up, a multidisciplinary-driven project between UK and Malawi partners [https://malawistrokeunit.org/]. The group aspires to provide evidence-based, resource-sensitive stroke care to poor populations.