Prof. Andrew Copp, MBBS DPhil FRCPath FMedSci

Glaxo-Wellcome Professor of Developmental Neurobiology
University College London, Institute of Child Health

Lecture Title: Chiari II brain malformation: determining its relationship to spina bifida

Andrew Copp is Professor of Developmental Neurobiology at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK. He holds an Honorary Consultant position in neuropathology at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK. He is qualified in developmental biology (DPhil: University of Oxford, UK) and medicine (MBBS: University of London, UK), and holds the titles of FRCPath and FMedSci.

Dr Copp’s research focuses on the genetics, development and prevention of birth defects, in particular spina bifida and other neural tube defects (NTDs). He has published over 230 papers and review articles on the mechanisms by which the mammalian embryo closes its neural tube, and the processes that underlie failure of closure, in both genetically- and environmentally-induced mouse models of NTD. Recently, his team described the process of low spinal neural tube closure, and formation of the secondary neural tube, in the human embryo. Work in both mice and humans has led to a clinical trial of inositol to improve primary prevention of NTDs, alongside folic acid.

Dr Copp is Co-Director of the Human Developmental Biology Resource (HDBR: www.hdbr.org), which is based at two sites in UK: London and Newcastle. With National Research Ethics Committee approval, human embryonic and fetal samples are collected after informed consent of donors, staged, stored and provided to research teams worldwide that require access to human embryonic and fetal material in the 4-22 week post-conceptional period. Over 100 projects are receiving HDBR samples at any time, and over 500 publications have resulted from resarch using HDBR samples.