Simon Lewis

Simon Lewis is a Neurologist who has sub-specialised in degenerative diseases of the brain including Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies and related conditions. He works as a Clinical Academic seeing patients and conducting research to improve our understanding and treatment of these brain disorders.

His research program is intentionally broad but highly integrated and directed towards improving the lives of people living with neurodegenerative brain diseases. He has previously utilised a range of novel techniques including neuroimaging (brain scanning), neurophysiology (e.g. recording brain waves), neuropathology (leads the NSW Movement Disorders Brain Donor Program), chronobiology (e.g. measuring melatonin), neurogenetics and other peripheral biomarkers from blood tests. 

These approaches have been used to evaluate a variety of symptoms including dementia, gait disturbance, sleep-wake problems and hallucinations. Some of these approaches are targeting patients who are troubled by specific symptoms, whereas other work is focused on predicting who will develop degenerative diseases at the earliest possible point in time so as to increase our chances of preventing, slowing or curing these conditions. To this end, he is currently conducting a series of disease modifying drug trials in patients who have been diagnosed with degenerative brain disease. Furthermore, he also trains and mentors junior doctors, nurses and a range of research students. He invests in this capacity building to train the next generation of clinicians and researchers.

His research has attracted significant funding from a range of sources including the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the international Michael J Fox Foundation. Send him a message, if you’d like to learn more about his work.

The Parkinson’s Disease Research clinic, Macquarie University

The Parkinson’s Disease Research clinic led by Professor Simon Lewis, strives to develop better patient care and family support for people living with Parkinson’s Disease and related disorders. Our research investigates the causes underlying many of the problems faced by people living with these conditions. We hope a better understanding of these symptoms will improve quality of life. In addition, we have specific studies addressing novel treatment and diagnostic approaches.

Our studies rely on people living with Parkinson’s Disease and related conditions. We are currently running studies in freezing of gait, hallucinations and predicting disease and clinical trials targeting specific symptoms and disease progression. We are also the first point of contact for registering interest in the New South Wales Movement Disorders Brain Donor Program.

Our research program is always evolving so please contact us to find out more about our research: [email protected]

We always welcome enquiries from enthusiastic researchers. Currently we would particularly welcome interest from people with a variety of skills including but not limited to: Psychology, clinical medicine, neuroimaging, engineering and neurophysiology. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to know more.