Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic

The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at the University of Edinburgh is a globally leading, patient-centred, integrated care-research facility.
We seamlessly integrate the best NHS health care with the best University health research, as key to discovering and trialling new treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurological conditions including motor neuron disease (MND), Parkinson’s and dementias.

An image of the Anne Rowling clinic at night
The Anne Rowling Clinic
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Please do not contact us with individual patient/clinical enquiries. We are not permitted to respond to questions or requests from individuals about their health or treatment and therefore you will not receive a response.

Key people

Name Title
Prof Siddharthan Chandran Director
Judy Newton Deputy Director Clinic
Dr Rebecca Devon Deputy Director Science & Strategy
Prof David Hunt Head of Neuroinflammation
Prof Suvankar Pal Head of Neurodegeneration

About the Centre

  • The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic opened in 2013, founded by a philanthropic donation to the University by author J.K. Rowling in memory of her mother Anne. Anne Rowling died in 1990 aged 45, from complications related to multiple sclerosis. Ms Rowling made a second philanthropic donation in 2019. 
  • The donations support the core infrastructure of the Clinic; funding for research comes from competitive charity, government and industry research grants, as well as generous contributions from donors and fundraisers. 
  • The Anne Rowling Clinic is a unique collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian. It supports approximately 50 staff including consultant neurologists, clinical fellows, research nurses, research practitioners, trial management staff, laboratory scientists and technicians. 
  • We work closely with the Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research, the UK Dementia Research Institute at Edinburgh and the MS Society Edinburgh Centre for MS Research. [add links] 

  • Since opening in 2013, the Anne Rowling Clinic has conducted approximately 50,000 clinical appointments, and 15,000 research appointments across more than 50 clinical research studies and trials 
  • Our investigators have raised £50M in external funding for research, and published more than 600 peer-reviewed scientific publications 
  • The Clinic has supported 80 early-career academics, including 18 doctors who are undertaking or have been awarded PhDs 
  • Patients are at the heart of what we do, providing invaluable input into study design, and attending open evenings and lab tours. It is extremely important to us that the people with tough neurological conditions who attend the Clinic consistently give us fantastic feedback, such as the following: “This is a wonderful place, from the incredible people who work here tirelessly, to the hope they have for the future; truly inspirational.”  

At the Anne Rowling Clinic we seamlessly integrate the best NHS health care with the best University health research, as key to discovering and trialling new treatments for MS and other neurological conditions. 

We host NHS Lothian specialist clinics for neurological conditions, and combine this clinical care with scientific research. The unique welcoming environment of our Clinic aims to help people attending NHS and research appointments to feel comfortable and relaxed during their visit. 

We are transforming opportunities to take part in research. People attending an appointment at the Clinic and others across Scotland can sign up from a menu of approximately 25 active research studies, from observational studies involving clinical assessments and questionnaires, to donating a blood sample, having a brain scan, or joining a clinical drugs trial. We are pioneering adaptive trial designs that halve the time taken to test a drug. 

We are international leaders in the use of patient-donated stem cells to model ‘disease in a dish’. Cells donated in the Clinic are converted into brain cells for use in high-throughput automated drug discovery pipelines.  

Our growing digital arm links a ‘research-ready’ register of people across Scotland, NeuroCARE, with an App that collects speech recordings for machine learning-powered analysis, as well as data from cognitive games, and questionnaires about quality of life. 

A key aim of the Clinic is training the next generation of clinician scientists. The Rowling Scholars programme enables doctors to undertake a PhD, while clinical fellow and graduate research practitioner posts provide an all-round training in clinical research for neurological conditions. 


Clinical appointments  

Appointments at the Anne Rowling Clinic can only be made upon an NHS referral (for example, by a GP). The Clinic is a partnership with NHS Lothian and there are no private appointments. 

Research opportunities 

We would be interested to hear from potential collaborators. As well as conducting our own research studies, we act as a recruiting site for many external academic and industry clinical research studies and trials. 

We operate an annual staff recruitment round, with positions for early-career doctors and non-clinical graduates. Recruitment takes place between January and March. 

The Anne Rowling Clinic does not currently operate a summer internship scheme and we are therefore unable to assist with finding placements.  


For the latest academic research publications by Clinic researchers, please see Anne Rowling Clinic publications on Edinburgh Research Explorer.


Visiting the Clinic from the perspective of a patient

An animated overview of the Anne Rowling Clinic from the perspective of a patient attending the Clinic

Welcome  to  the  Anne  Rowling  Clinic. The  clinic  was  built  with  money  donated  to Edinburgh  University  by  author  JK  Rolling in  memory  of  her  mother, Ann,  who  had  multiple  sclerosis. Our  aim  at  this  clinic  is  to  deliver excellent  NHS  care  for people  living  with  multiple  sclerosis, motor  neuron  disease,  Parkinson's  disease, dementia,  and  other  conditions that  might  affect  the  nervous  system. The  only  way  for  us  to  improve  the  treatments you  receive  is  by  conducting  health  research. But  clinic  is  currently  the  only  clinic  of its  kind  in  the  UK  that combines  routine  NHS care  with  health  research. Around  you  are  a  combined  team  of highly  specialised  doctors,  nurses, and  practitioners  dedicated  to ensure  you  receive  the  best  care  today, but  with  a  focus  on  making things  better  for  you  tomorrow. We  are  all  trained  in  urology. Some  are  focused  on  researching your  condition  and  some on  your  direct  health  care. You  can  help  us  in  so  many  ways. You  can  donate  some  blood for  our  stem  cell  research. You  can  help  us  develop  our  digital  health. You  can  take  part  in  clinical  drug  trials, and  you  can  take  part in  observational  studies. We  need  you  to  help  us. The  research  we  conduct  here today  will  influence  the  care you  receive  in  the  future. 

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