Patrick Chinnery

Following a Bachelors degree in Neuroscience, I qualified in medicine in 1992 at Newcastle University. After three years of general medical training as a junior doctor in Newcastle Hospitals, I studied for a PhD as a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training Fellow investigating the molecular basis of mitochondrial diseases. 

I then combined a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust with clinical training in neurology and genetics in Newcastle, and neurogenetics at Queen Square in London. I was appointed Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Newcastle in 2002 before becoming Professor of Neurogenetics at Newcastle University in 2004. 

In 2003 I became a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow in Clinical Science (renewed 2018 & 2013) and now hold a Wellcome Principal Research Fellowship (2018-). I am a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci, 2009), and an NIHR Senior Investigator (2010). In 2011 I was elected a Fellow of the American Neurological Association, and was awarded the Foulkes Foundation Medal by the Academy of Medical Sciences. 

I was Director of the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (2008-2015), and Director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University (2010-2015). In 2015 I moved to the University of Cambridge as Professor of Neurology and Head of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, stepping down in 2023. 

I jointly chair the NIHR Rare Diseases Translational Research Collaboration (2012-), and I am the Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council (2024-). I was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2024. 

Project/study information

I lead an integrated wet-lab, computational and clinical research group focussed on understanding mitochondrial mechanisms in human disease to develop new treatments. We focus on mitochondrial DNA in rare inherited mitochondrial disorders and mitochondrial involvement in neurodegeneration/ageing.