Professor Bernadette McGuinness graduated in medicine from Queen’s University Belfast in 1997. She trained in geriatric medicine and general internal medicine, completing specialty training in 2007. During this time she graduated with MD for work on neuropsychological changes in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Dr McGuinness was awarded the Paul Beeson Career Development Award in 2007, a prestigious award from Atlantic Philanthropies and the American Federation of Aging Research. This afforded three further years of research into mild cognitive impairment and led to a PhD.

She currently works as professor in geriatric medicine within the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast and consultant geriatrician in the Belfast Trust. Dr McGuinness leads a twice weekly memory clinic within the Belfast Trust where patients with a spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders are assessed, diagnosed and followed-up. From a research perspective she is especially interested in Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, mild cognitive impairment, the role of inflammation and nutrition in neurodegeneration; she leads a research portfolio of studies in these areas.

She is clinical lead of the Northern Ireland Cohort of Longitudinal Ageing (NICOLA) study and leads on an NIA funded study comprehensively assessing cognition in NICOLA participants.