Festive Symposium 2025: Delivering Neuroscience: From Synapse to Society

Maria Beatrice Panico

Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Scendea

I am a Principal Medical Consultant at Scendea, responsible for providing highly strategic clinical and regulatory advice. I was formerly a Leading Senior Medical Assessor at the MHRA and represented the UK in the European working groups on new trial designs, safety and In Vitro Diagnostics. I am one of the authors of the CTFG Recommendation Paper on the Initiation and Conduct of Complex Clinical Trials. I was involved in the UK response to both the Ebola and the COVID19 medical emergencies.
Before joining the MHRA I worked as a clinical neurologist, clinical investigator, researcher in neuroscience and pharmacovigilance expert in the pharmaceutical industry.
I was a member of the WHO working group on regulatory aspects of artificial intelligence.
I am a medical doctor, fully qualified neurologist and have a PhD In neuroscience.

: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/maria-beatrice-panico-0

Narender Ramnani

BNA President/ Professor of Neuroscience, Royal Holloway, University of London

Professor Ramnani is a distinguished Professor of Neuroscience at Royal Holloway, University of London, where his research group uses functional neuroimaging to understand brain organisation, and brain mechanisms that govern higher cognitive function, learning processes, and the control of action.

He is also Vice Dean for EDI at Royal Holloway’s School of Life Sciences and the Environment. Beyond his university roles, he is a member of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee APPG Advisory Group. He also makes contributions to equity, diversity, and inclusion through his contributions to the BNA Scholars programme, his role on the BBSRC's Expert EDI Advisory Group and his governance role as a member of the Governance Committee of Advance HE's Race Equality Charter. A commitment to fostering a strong, collaborative, and inclusive research community underscores the priorities he brings to the Presidency.

Paul Sharp

Lead Scientist, Medicines Discovery Catapult

Paul is a Senior Preclinical Imaging Scientist with over 15 years of experience in driving innovation in translational research within academia and industry.

Paul has a PhD in neuroscience and expertise across multiple therapeutics areas from oncology to CNS disorders, with a strong focus on applying anatomical and functional imaging modalities for disease phenotyping, PK/PD readouts and evaluating whole-body biodistribution of complex medicines.

Chris Shaw

Chief Scientific and Clinical Advisor/Co-Founder, AviadoBio

Professor Shaw had trained as a Neurologist in New Zealand before coming to Cambridge, UK on a Wellcome Trust Fellowship and moving to King’s College London in 1995. He is Director of the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, and Centre Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at King’s. His research team have discovered more amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) genes than any other laboratory, enabling gene testing for patients and at-risk family members. They have generated a large number of stem cell and transgenic mouse models that recapitulate key features of the human disease and have revealed important mechanistic insights. Their focus for the future is to develop gene therapies for a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders using adeno-associated viral gene vectors. Award highlights include the “Forbes Norris Award” for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Care and Research (2009), “Sheila Essey Prize” for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research (2012) and “Kea World Class New Zealander Award” (2019). He remains clinically active, running an ALS clinic at King’s College Hospital and leading clinical trials of antisense oligonucleotide therapies.

Professor Simon Ward

Professor of Translational Drug Discovery, Cardiff University

Professor Simon Ward
Founder and Chief Scientific & Development Officer at Draig Therapeutics
Sêr Cymru Professor of Translational Drug Discovery, Cardiff University

Professor Simon Ward is a scientific leader and drug development expert with more than 25 years’ experience spanning academia, biotech, and the pharmaceutical industry. He is the Founder and Chief Scientific & Development Officer of Draig Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders. At Cardiff University, he leads the Medicines Discovery Institute as Sêr Cymru Professor of Translational Drug Discovery. His work focuses on translating neuroscience and medicinal chemistry research into new treatments, advancing projects from discovery through to clinical development.