NIHR Senior Investigator, 2010, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 2009, Association of British Neurologists, Charles Symonds Prize, 1997 & 2002 Patrick Francis Chinnery is a neurologist, clinician scientist, and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow based in the Medical Research Council Mitochondrial Biology Unit and the University of Cambridge, where he is also professor of neurology and head of the department of clinical neurosciences.
[6] Chinnery trained as a physician and neurologist in the north east of England, becoming a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1995, and completing his specialist clinical training in neurology 2002 when he was appointed Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
His group showed that most healthy people also carry heteroplasmic mtDNA mutations, but at very low levels.
Carrying out the first large-scale study in the UK 100,000 genomes project, he showed that the nuclear genetic background also influences the inheritance pattern of mtDNA mutations.
[11] He also showed that genetic variation of mtDNA influences the risk of developing common diseases and many human physiological traits, including kidney and liver function.
In 2020 he was appointed National Core Study Lead for COVID-19 therapeutics by the UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance.
In 2009 he was the youngest elected member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, who awarded him the Foulkes Foundation Medal in 2011.