Ben studied natural science at Oxford University and medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. He completed his psychiatric training in Cambridge where he also undertook a PhD in molecular neurogenetics with Professor David Rubinsztein, looking at autophagy as a therapeutic strategy in neurodegeneration. He is assistant professor in applied and translational old age psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, an honorary consultant old age psychiatrist and R and D director at CPFT.
His interests are in translational medicine in dementia where he has been PI for academic and pharma led clinical trials of novel CTIMPs. He is clinical director of the Windsor research unit, a facility dedicated to joining NHS patients with clinical research. He is the NIHR CRN dementia lead for the east of England and national dementia lead for stratified medicine. During the coronavirus pandemic his working life took an unexpected turn when he became a co-investigator on a number of coronavirus studies, including the Oxford/Astra Zenica vaccine study. Along with Mark Toshner he delivers the Cambridge Advance online course in novel clinical trial design in translational medicine at the University of Cambridge.
Contact: ben.underwood@cpft.nhs.uk