Professor Mark Cunningham is the Ellen Mayston Bates Professor of Neurophysiology of Epilepsy (appointed July 2018) at Trinity College Dublin.

 

Professor Cunningham began his scientific career at Queen’s University, Belfast where he read Physiology as an undergraduate. He obtained his PhD in Physiology from the University of Bristol working with Professor Roland S.G. Jones examining the impact of anti-epileptic drugs on synaptic function. He then undertook post-doctoral positions at Bristol University, University of Leeds, Heidelberg University and Newcastle University during which time he worked with Professor Miles Whittington, Professor Eberhard Buhl and Professor Hannah Monyer. During this time Professor Cunningham worked on projects focusing on the mechanisms underlying the generation of various type of neuronal oscillations using a combination of electrophysiological, pharmacological and transgenic mouse models. His research is focused on understanding the basis of neurological (epilepsy) and psychiatric disease at the level of the neuronal microcircuit and in particular in the context of physiological and pathological electrical activity generated by the brain. To date he has published 54 articles and over 100 conference proceedings with 3700 citations and a H-index of 31.  

In 2005 he was awarded a RCUK Academic Fellowship at Newcastle University. In 2007 alongside Professor Miles Whittington he founded the first UK research platform for conducting electrophysiological recordings from live human epileptic brain tissue ex vivo in Newcastle with support from the Wolfson Foundation. In 2016 he was appointed as Professor of Neuronal Dynamics at the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University and currently holds a visiting Professorship at Newcastle University.

 

Professor Cunningham’s research has been supported by the BBSRC, MRC, Wellcome Trust, Epilepsy Research UK, Action of Hearing Loss, Hadwen Trust, Innovate UK, Wolfson Foundation and The Royal Society. He has had collaborative funding agreements with a number of global pharmaceutical companies.  
 
Professor Cunningham currently sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee for Epilepsy Research UK and is a member of Biomedical Resource and Technology Development Committee at the Wellcome Trust. He is a  member of the Brain Tumor-Related Epilepsy international research consortium He is a fellow of the Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation (CASMI).  He has also acted on advisory boards and as a consultant to numerous pharmaceutical companies. He is a member of the Physiological Society, British Neuroscience Association and the International League against Epilepsy (ILAE).