Paola Giunti

Paola is Professor at UCL and Head at the Ataxia Centre at the Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology.

She studied Medicine specializing in Neurology and gained her PhD at the University of Rome, “Sapienza”, in Italy.

During 1992-1995 she was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Neurology UCL, Queen Square in Department of Clinical Neurology, working in the team of Prof Anita Harding.

In 2004 she was successful in gaining a Fellowship from Ataxia UK and was made a Senior Clinical Associate in the Department of Clinical Neurology at Queen Square. In 2005 the Ataxia Centre, a model of translational research, she established was awarded a Centre of Excellence by Ataxia UK. This award, the first of this kind, was instrumental to open up other three centres in the UK based on her model.  The worldwide recognition of her successes made the National Ataxia Foundation in the USA to award her centre as an Ataxia Centre Excellence one of few outside the USA.

She authored more than 200 high Impact factor scientific papers (Nature Medicine, The Lancet, The Lancet of Neurology, and others).

She serves on several National and International Steering Committees. In 2016 she was endowed with the Health Professional Award (Neurology Advocacy Awards) by the European Federation of Neurological Associations (EFNA).

In 2023 she was presented with the brand-new Ataxia UK Excellence in Ataxia Research and Care Award.