George Tofaris

Professor George Tofaris is a Professor of Neurology and Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and holds an MRC Senior Clinical Fellowship. He leads the Molecular Neurodegeneration Research Group and serves as an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at John Radcliffe Hospital, specializing in Movement Disorders and Neurogenetic Disorders. His research focuses on α-synuclein pathology in Parkinson’s disease and mitochondrial dysfunction in hereditary neurodegeneration.

Education:

• PhD, MB/PhD Programme, University of Cambridge (2003)
• Clinical Neurology Training, London Hospitals (2011)
• Cell Biology Fellowship, Harvard Medical School (2008-09)

Research Interests:

• Elucidating cellular pathways in protein quality control using iPSC models.
• Identifying α-synuclein ubiquitination in neurodegenerative diseases.
• Developing extracellular vesicle biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease.
• Studying mitochondrial dysfunction in inherited neurodegeneration.

Scientific Contributions:

• Discovered α-synuclein ubiquitination regulates endosomal degradation.
• Developed methodologies for neuronally-derived extracellular vesicle analysis.
• Established EU IMI Consortium IMPRiND for neurodegeneration mechanisms.

Awards:

• Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship (2012)
• Wellcome-Beit Prize (2012)
• MRC Senior Clinical Fellowship (2020)
• Todd-Bird Junior Research Fellowship (New College, Oxford)

Grants & Collaborations: Funded by MRC, Wellcome Trust, EPSRC, EU IMI, and Michael J. Fox Foundation. Collaborated with Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery on misfolded protein propagation.