Elizabeth Bradbury is Professor of Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine, Group Leader of the Spinal Cord and Brain Repair Group, and co-Director of the Wolfson SPaRC (Sensory Pain and Regeneration Centre) at King’s College London, U.K.
Research in the Bradbury Lab focuses on understanding processes of injury and repair and developing therapies to restore function following central nervous system trauma, with a particular interest in scarring, extracellular matrix modification and neuroplasticity after spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Her work led to the first demonstration that treatment with the enzyme chondroitinase, which degrades inhibitory matrix molecules, could restore limb function in pre-clinical SCI models. This work had a major impact in the field, with matrix-targeting strategies now in clinical trials. Her expertise in developing regenerative therapies and using clinically relevant models of SCI has led to a pipeline of advanced therapeutics (including advanced gene and antibody therapies) that are being developed for human application. Her work has been supported by numerous spinal research charities (including Spinal Research, Wings for Life, Reeve Foundation, Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, International Foundation for Research in Paraplegia, Rosetrees).
She has received prestigious Fellowship awards from the MRC (Career Development Award; Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship) and was awarded the Schellenberg Prize for Research in 2008 (for advances to the field of SCI), a Suffrage Science Award in 2018 (for leading female scientists), and the G. Heiner Sell Lectureship in 2023 (awarded by the American Spinal Injury Association).
She is Consortium Lead for CHASE-IT (chondroitinase for injury therapy; developing advanced gene therapies for clinical translation) and SCI-NET (using multidisciplinary approaches to identify novel molecular targets) and member of the ReWire Consortium (technology-driven therapies to rewire the injured spinal cord).
Bradbury encourages a diverse and inclusive research culture and is actively involved in outreach, such as hosting regular spinal research supporters’ events and an annual work experience program for high school students. She has published >75 peer reviewed articles in leading journals (including Nature, Nature Communications, The Lancet Neurology, Brain, Nature Reviews Neuroscience).