Kathryn Peall

Professor Kathryn Peall is a Personal Chair in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences at Cardiff University's School of Medicine. She is an active researcher and supervisor with a focus on movement disorders, particularly dystonia across the lifespan. Her work is supported by major funding bodies including the Medical Research Council, Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, The Dystonia Society, and Life Sciences Research Network Wales.

Her research interests span the etiology and pathophysiology of movement disorders, with a special focus on dystonia and myoclonus-dystonia. She employs a multidisciplinary approach combining epidemiology, neuroimaging (including ultra-strong diffusion MRI), invertebrate models, and pluripotent stem cell-derived cellular models to understand disease mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic targets.

Analysis of her recent publications (2023–2025) reveals a strong trend toward digital health applications in neurology, particularly the use of wearable devices and smartwatch data for early detection of Parkinson’s disease and monitoring non-motor symptoms. She also continues to advance knowledge in genetic dystonias, neuroimaging biomarkers, and psychiatric comorbidities in movement disorders.

She is actively involved in postgraduate supervision and welcomes students interested in clinical phenotyping, complex disease genetics, and cellular/invertebrate modeling of neurological disorders.