Matthew Wilcox

Fulbright Royal College Surgeons Scholar Award - Havard University

Dr. Matt Wilcox is an incoming trainee surgeon within the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Deanery. He is also the lead for Clinical Translational Research at the University College London, Centre for Nerve Engineering (https://www.nerve-engineering.ucl.ac.uk/).  

Dr. Wilcox became fascinated with nerve injury medicine as a medical student after he was caught up in the 2017 Borough Market terrorist attacks. He encountered patients with nerve injuries often leaving them with permanent loss of movement and chronic pain. This lived experience has motivated Dr. Wilcox to focus his clinical and research efforts on restoring function to nerve injured patients.  

His research focuses on developing blood tests which monitor nerve injuries to identifying imaging methods to track muscles as they recover after a nerve injury. It is hoped this will encourage clinical trials of therapies which lead to improved patient outcomes.  

His Fulbright scholarship marks the establishment of an important collaboration between a major centre for nerve injury based within Harvard University, USA (led by Dr. Justin Brown and Dr. Ross Mandeville) and Dr. Wilcox’s team in London. This will bring together a diverse range of clinical and scientific expertise to accelerate this programme of clinical research.