Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Anya Topiwala

MA BMBCh MRCPsych DPhil


Wellcome Trust CRCD Fellow; Consultant Psychiatrist

I qualified in Medicine from the University of Oxford and subsequently pursued specialist training in older adult psychiatry. In 2017 I completed a DPhil in Psychiatry based on the MRC-funded study "Predicting MRI abnormalities with longitudinal data of the Whitehall II Substudy".

My current research, based in the Neuroimaging Statistics group at the Big Data Institute, uses population neuroimaging to study the impact of risk and resilience factors on psychiatric and cognitive disorders of later life. A particular interest is the association of alcohol consumption, a lifestyle factor which is widespread and modifiable, with adverse brain outcomes including dementia. As a practicing clinician I hope my research will ultimately yield benefits in dementia prevention.

In 2019 I was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship to investigate the effect of and mechanistic pathways through which alcohol consumption impacts brain health. Using huge databases, which contain lifestyle and clinical data on millions of people in the UK and US, and the largest brain imaging and genetic samples worldwide, I will clarify how alcohol affects brain structure and function. The research will be conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the Universities of Oxford, Yale and London.

My previous funding has been through the MRC, the Ruth and Nevill Mott Scholarship at Linacre College, and grants from Alzheimer's Research UK and the University of Oxford. Prizes awarded include the Gosling Fellowship from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Junior Investigator Award from the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism, and a European Psychiatry Society Research prize.