Grainne McAlonan is Professor of Translational Neuroscience and Head of Department, Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. She is Director of the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

She studied Medicine at University of Cambridge and Imperial College London and completed a PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience at University of Cambridge. After clinical and research posts in the UK, she worked for over a decade in The University of Hong Kong before returning to the IoPPN. She uses MRI as a translational tool to link brain and behaviour in people with neurodevelopmental conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); and to ‘back’ (and ‘forward’) translate to laboratory models.

Her current research is informed by her work in the National ADHD and Autism Service for Adults at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and she is the Lead for the Child and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Theme in the NIHR Maudsley BRC. In May 2023 she was appointed to the newly created role of Deputy Director at the NIHR Maudsley BRC.

Professor McAlonan is a group leader within the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at IoPPN and is a lead investigator within the EU-AIMS-2-TRIALS consortium – a European network hosting the world’s largest grant for autism research. She is responsible for fetal/neonatal/infant brain imaging studies of children vulnerable to neurodevelopmental conditions and for pharmacology studies in adults with ASD.

Research Groups

• NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre
• Group Leader, MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• AIMS-2-TRIALS Fetal/Neonatal and Shiftability studies Lead
• Brain Health in Gen2020