Simon Lewis is a Neurologist who has sub-specialised in degenerative diseases of the brain including Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies and related conditions. He works as a Clinical Academic seeing patients and conducting research to improve our understanding and treatment of these brain disorders.

His research program is intentionally broad but highly integrated and directed towards improving the lives of people living with neurodegenerative brain diseases. He has previously utilised a range of novel techniques including neuroimaging (brain scanning), neurophysiology (e.g. recording brain waves), neuropathology (leads the NSW Movement Disorders Brain Donor Program), chronobiology (e.g. measuring melatonin), neurogenetics and other peripheral biomarkers from blood tests.

These approaches have been used to evaluate a variety of symptoms including dementia, gait disturbance, sleep-wake problems and hallucinations. Some of these approaches are targeting patients who are troubled by specific symptoms, whereas other work is focused on predicting who will develop degenerative diseases at the earliest possible point in time so as to increase our chances of preventing, slowing or curing these conditions. To this end, he is currently conducting a series of disease modifying drug trials in patients who have been diagnosed with degenerative brain disease. Furthermore, he also trains and mentors junior doctors, nurses and a range of research students. He invests in this capacity building to train the next generation of clinicians and researchers.

His research has attracted significant funding from a range of sources including the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the international Michael J Fox Foundation. Send him a message, if you’d like to learn more about his work.