Tara Spires-JonesAcademic

Biography

Tara Spires-Jones is Professor of Neurodegeneration at the University of Edinburgh, where she became Director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences on 1 August 2024, and co-leads the Synapses, Circuits, Cognition and Physiology division in the UK Dementia Research Institute. Her research focuses on the mechanisms and reversibility of synapse degeneration in Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative conditions, and she has pioneered high-resolution imaging techniques in human post-mortem brain. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers cited more than 25,000 times, and is founding editor of the translational neuroscience journal Brain Communications. Prior to moving to Scotland in 2013, she was Instructor then Assistant Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; she completed her DPhil at the University of Oxford. She served as President of the British Neuroscience Association from 2023 to 2025, was elected a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2024, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2026.

References

1. 1.Prof Tara Spires-Jones | Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences — Role, research focus, career history, BNA presidency, founding editor of Brain Communications
2. 2.Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences Welcomes New Director — Confirms appointment as Director of CDBS from 1 August 2024
3. 3.Prof Tara Spires-Jones | UK DRI — Current title (FMedSci, FRSE), publication count, awards including Inge Grundke-Iqbal 2024 and Stuart Pickering Brown Prize 2026, RSE fellowship 2026
4. 4.Tara Spires-Jones – University of Edinburgh Research Explorer — Academy of Medical Sciences fellowship 2024, BNA presidency 2023–2025, Scottish Science Advisory Council membership 2016–2019, career timeline
5. 5.Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows 2026 | Edinburgh Neuroscience

Expertise

Cited on

• Mental health
• Dementia

Stated areas of expertise

• Alzheimer's disease and dementia research
• Synapse degeneration and neurodegeneration
• Dementia drug development and clinical translation
• Brain ageing and cognitive resilience
• Neuroscience public engagement and policy
• High-resolution brain imaging

Notable achievements

• Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2026 in recognition of excellence in her field Source ↗
• Elected Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2024 Source ↗
• Awarded the Alzheimer's Research UK 2026 Stuart Pickering Brown Prize for lifetime achievement in dementia research Source ↗
• Served as President of the British Neuroscience Association from 2023 to 2025 Source ↗
• Became Director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences on 1 August 2024, taking over from David Wyllie Source ↗
• Awarded the 2024 Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer's Research by the Alzheimer's Association for the most influential paper in the Alzheimer's field in the previous two years Source ↗
• Served as a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council from 2016 to 2019 advising the Scottish Government on science policy

What they’ve said

• “Understanding the risk factors that made the brain vulnerable to Alzheimer's was 'essential for developing effective treatments and prevention strategies', adding that Apoe was one of the most important genetic risk factors.”

  professor of neurodegeneration at the University of Edinburgh · Mental health · 27 Aug 2026 · Alzheimer’s therapies should target a particular gene, researchers say ↗

• “This data is very interesting, strong and accurate, and is an important extension to what we know. Treatment are currently not available on the NHS because they're so expensive and risky. But as these get better over the next few years it's important that we can find people with amyloid in their brain using an easy test.”

  professor of neurodegeneration and director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh · Dementia · 27 Aug 2026 · Study finds 10% of over-70s in UK could have Alzheimer’s-like changes in brain ↗

Source references

1. Alzheimer’s therapies should target a particular gene, researchers saytheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. Study finds 10% of over-70s in UK could have Alzheimer’s-like changes in braintheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://discovery-brain-sciences.ed.ac.uk/our-staff/research-groups/prof-tara-spires-jones
• Staff pagehttps://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/tara-sheher-spires-jones/
• Staff pagehttps://www.ukdri.ac.uk/team/tara-spires-jones
• ORCIDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2530-0598published here ↗
• Press office emailCDBS@ed.ac.ukpublished here ↗
• Press office phone