I joined the department in 2001 after postdoctoral work on Huntington disease and other polyglutamine disorders at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff (1994-96) and the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore (1996-2001).

My research is focussed on molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders such as ALS and neurodevelopmental pathways that confer susceptibility to psychiatric disease, with a particular interest in the role of myelinating cells in these disorders.

Seytanoglu, A., Alsomali, N.I, Valori, C.F., McGown, A., Kim, H.R., Ning, K., Ramesh, T., Sharrack, B., Wood, J.D., Azzouz, M. (2015). Deficiency in the mRNA export mediator Gle1 impairs Schwann cell development in the zebrafish embryo. Neuroscience 322, 287-97 Abstract Boyd, P.J., Cunliffe, V.T., Roy, S. & Wood, J.D. (2015). Sonic hedgehog functions upstream of disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (disc1): Implications for mental illness. Biology Open 4, 1336-43 Abstract Highley, J.R., Lorente Pons, A., Cooper-Knock, J., Wharton, S.B., Ince, P.G., Shaw, P.J., Wood, J. & Kirby, J. (2015). Motor neurone disease/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis associated with intermediate repeat length CAG repeat expansions in Ataxin-2 does not have polyglutamine inclusions. Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology 42, 377-89 Abstract Fullstone, G., Wood, J., Holcombe, M. & Battaglia, G. (2015). Modelling the Transport of Nanoparticles under Blood Flow using an Agent-based Approach. Scientific Reports 5, 10649 Abstract Butler, R., Wood, J.D., Landers, J.A. & Cunliffe, V.T. (2010). Genetic and chemical modulation of Spastin-dependent axon outgrowth in zebrafish embryos indicates a role for impaired microtubule dynamics in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia. Disease Models and Mechanisms Abstract