Virginia Frances J. Newcombe

Dr Virginia Newcombe is an Honorary Consultant in the Department of Medicine, Division of Anaesthesia, at the University of Cambridge’s School of Clinical Medicine, based at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre. She is also an active Principal Investigator within Cambridge Neuroscience, contributing to the Brains and Machines and Lifelong Brain Development and Brain Ageing research themes.

Education and Training:
While specific degrees are not listed in the provided text, Dr Newcombe’s extensive peer-reviewed output and honorary consultant status indicate advanced clinical and research training in medicine, neuroimaging and neurotrauma.

Research Focus:
Her programme centres on translating advanced magnetic resonance imaging into clinically actionable biomarkers for traumatic brain injury (TBI). Key themes include:

• Prediction of short- and long-term outcomes after mild, moderate and severe TBI.
• Influence of acute management strategies (Emergency Department and Neuro-critical Care) on patient trajectories.
• Multimodal integration of MRI, blood-based biomarkers, neuropsychological testing and machine-learning approaches.
• Neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative sequelae of TBI and COVID-19.

Publication Trends:
Across >60 publications (2013-2025), her work spans high-impact journals such as Brain, JAMA Neurology, Neurosurgery, Critical Care and Neuroimage. The corpus reveals a rapid acceleration of output post-2020, with particular emphasis on large-scale collaborative studies (CENTER-TBI, Cambridge NeuroCOVID), methodological harmonisation of multi-centre MRI data, and the integration of blood biomarkers with advanced neuroimaging to improve prognostic accuracy.

Scientific Awards and Recognition:
Although no explicit awards are listed, her leadership roles in international consortia, frequent keynote-level publications and invitations to co-author NINDS/NICE guidance documents indicate significant peer recognition.

Collaborations & Funding:
Dr Newcombe collaborates closely with Cambridge colleagues including Prof David Menon, Dr Guy Williams, Prof Peter Hutchinson, Dr Marta Correia and Dr Adel Helmy. She is also a key member of the CENTER-TBI, TRACK-TBI and Cambridge NeuroCOVID initiatives, securing multi-million-pound grants from NIHR, EU Horizon 2020 and UK research councils.

Laboratory & Teams:
She leads a translational neuroimaging group embedded within the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, equipped with 3 T and 7 T MRI, state-of-the-art post-processing pipelines and dedicated Emergency Department/ICU recruitment infrastructure. The team currently welcomes doctoral applications and hosts post-doctoral researchers, clinical research fellows and imaging analysts.