Simon Mead

Key facts

• Lead author of the PRN100 first-in-human report (Lancet Neurology 2022; six patients, safe, no overall survival difference).
• Co-author of the MRC Prion Disease Rating Scale guide and the international CJD biomarker guideline.
• International author group: NPDPSC (Brian Appleby), Goettingen National Reference Center for Human Prion Diseases (Inga Zerr), UCL Institute of Prion Diseases (Simon Mead), Florey CJD Registry (Melbourne), Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Neurological Institute.
• PRN100, a humanised anti-PrP monoclonal antibody from the MRC Prion Unit, was given to six UCLH patients with CJD between October 2018 and July 2019; Lancet Neurology paper 16 March 2022 (Mead et al.); safe and reaches the brain; led by John Collinge; independent oversight group; compared with the National Prion Monitoring Cohort (since 2008).
• International consensus on CJD biomarkers and criteria with authors from Goettingen (Zerr, Hermann), NPDPSC, RML, Edinburgh (Green), UCSF (Geschwind), Melbourne (Collins), Vienna/Toronto (Kovacs), UCL (Mead) and CIBERNED Spain; RT-QuIC accepted into diagnostic criteria.
• Consultant Neurologist and Clinical Lead of the National Prion Clinic since 2007; Professor at UCL since 2014, NIHR Senior Investigator since 2018 and Deputy Director of the MRC Prion Unit since 2018.
• Leads the Human Genetics, Bioinformatics and Epigenetics programme and co-leads the clinical programme; interests include treatment and trial design in CJD, biomarkers and genetic and epigenetic modifiers.
• A 2026 CJD Foundation grant to his group funds DNA extraction for global genome-wide association studies in CJD (listed as coming soon).
• His group reports risk conferred by variants in or near genes other than the prion protein gene, methylation-based diagnostic classifiers and population genetics of the kuru epidemic.
• A JAMA Neurology 2016 paper (Mead et al.) simulated clinical trials using genetic stratification and reports that the National Prion Clinic visits patients within 5 days of referral.
• A UK Biobank approved project led by him used controls to replicate CJD genetic risk factors (2019, closed).

Timeline

1. 2007Clinical Lead of the National Prion Clinic.
2. 2014Professor at UCL.
3. 2018Deputy Director of the MRC Prion Unit and NIHR Senior Investigator.
4. 2019UK Biobank approval for the CJD genetic replication project.
5. 2022Co-author of the PRN100 first-in-human report.
6. 2026CJD Foundation grant for global CJD genome-wide DNA extraction.
7. 2026Co-author of the Lancet Neurology prion biomarker review.