David John Werring (born October 1967) is a British physician,

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

, and academic specialising in

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

. He is

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...

at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and current head of Stroke Research Centre and the Department of Translational Neuroscience and Stroke at UCL.

Career

Werring received his Bachelor in

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

s in 1989 and his Bachelor in Medicine/Bachelor in Surgery from Guy's Hospital Medical School in 1992. He became a Member of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (MRCP) in 1995 and finished his PhD in clinical neurology at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in 2000. After completing his clinical training in neurology and stroke medicine in 2004, he was appointed consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery,

University College Hospital University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College Lo ...

and Watford General Hospital in 2005. Werring was made Reader in clinical neurology and honorary consultant neurologist in 2008, became a fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

(FRCP) in 2012 and was made

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in 2015. In 2017, he became head of the research department of Brain Repair & Rehabilitation at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. The name of this department changed to the Department of Translational Neuroscience and Stroke in 2025. Werring is a recognized expert in the field of

, chaired the UK Stroke Forum 2020-2022 and is President of the British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians since December 2023. He was elected as a Life Member, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, in 2023. He was appointed as a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator in 2024. He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2025.

Scientific expertise

The core field of research of Werring is stroke, in particular cerebral small vessel disease,

intracerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into Intraparenchymal hemorrhage, the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its Intraventricular hemorrhage, ventricles, or into both. An ICH is ...

and

cerebral amyloid angiopathy Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a form of angiopathy in which amyloid beta peptide deposits in the walls of small to medium blood vessels of the central nervous system and meninges. The term ''congophilic'' is sometimes used because the pres ...

. He has published more than 480 peer-reviewed articles on those topics and in other fields of clinical neurology. Werring has led large collaborative studies investigating cerebral microbleeds and has expertise in neuroimaging, with a focus on brain

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and rad ...

. He was the Chief Investigator of a large multi-centre study investigating the timing of oral anticoagulation after ischemic stroke, OPTIMAS, funded by the British Heart Foundation and has been involved in several studies investigating the influence of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

and respective vaccines on stroke. He has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 106, and is an editor of the Queen Square textbook of Neurology. He is an editorial board member of several scientific journals, including the European Stroke Journal, International Journal of Stroke, and the European Journal of Neurology.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Werring, David 1967 births Living people British neurologists Academics of University College London Alumni of King's College London