Professor Antonio Belli MD, FRCS, FRCS (SN)

Professor Tony Belli

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Professor of Trauma Neurosurgery

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 4497
Telephone (2)
PA - Nadene Bryan 0121 414 3713
Fax
+44 (0) 121 414 8867
Email
a.belli@bham.ac.uk
Secondary Email
n.m.bryan@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
IBR West Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Belli graduated from Tor Vergata University in Rome with a degree in Medicine and Surgery. He completed a doctoral degree (MD) on neurobiochemistry of brain ischaemia and reperfusion at Tor Vergata University and then moved to the UK in 1994.

He trained as a neurosurgeon at King’s College Hospital, Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Great Ormond Street Hospital, The Royal Free Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital. Between 2001 and 2003 he carried out a research fellowship in neuromonitoring at the Institute of Neurology in London.

He is on the editorial board of several neurology journals and is an advisor to NICE and the Care Quality Commission.

Antonio Belli is Director of the NIHR SRMRC. Find out more about the work of the research centre on the SRMRC website.

Qualifications

  • Fellowship in Surgical Neurology (FRCS SN), 2004
  • Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow (FRCS), 1997
  • MD (Reactive Oxygen Species damage in brain ischaemia and reperfusion) – Department of Neurosciences, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, 1992
  • Degree of Doctor of Medicine and Surgery (summa cum laude) – University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, 1990

Biography

Professor Belli is a Professor of Trauma Neurosurgery and Director of the Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMCR) based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. The SRMRC is a leading centre for trauma research and was founded in 2011 with £20M grant from NIHR, MoD, the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham. He heads the neurotrauma research theme, which carries out translational research on traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. He is also a practising neurosurgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he leads the Neurotrauma service comprised of a formidable team of doctors, nurses and therapists.

Teaching

  • Tony has set up and leads the new MSc course in Trauma Sciences at the University of Birmingham. This is the first on-site MSc course in trauma in the UK and one of just a handful available in this field worldwide. In this programme he also leads the Neurotrauma module.
  • Tony also continues to be involved in the regular teaching of medical, BMedSc and Sports and Excercise Science students. He has contributed to teaching at other institutions by invitation; for example, the Nursing Degree at City University, the Neurotrauma Course at Royal College of Surgeons (where I am a regular faculty member) and MSc courses at Queen Mary University London.

Postgraduate supervision

If you are interesting in studying any of these subject areas please contact Tony Belli directly, or for any general doctoral research enquiries, please email mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

For a full list of available Doctoral Research opportunities, please visit our Doctoral Research programme listings.

Research

Professor Belli’s research interest is in neurobiochemistry and neuromonitoring of acute brain injury. A particular focus is brain metabolism following mild and severe traumatic brain injury and how this relates to the long-term outcome and the risk of early neurogenerative conditions. Many of his current studies involve cross-disciplinary collaborations with engineering, chemistry, computing science and IT.

Working with cerebral microdialysis, another area of interest is early markers of tissue damage for the prevention of secondary injury after trauma and subarachnoid haemorrhage, patient stratification and drug discovery.

He is the principal or chief investigator of several acute brain injury studies, including international multicentre trials.

Other activities

  • Director of NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (Trauma Research)
  • Theme Lead of the NIHR Healthcare Technology Cooperative on Trauma Management
  • Module Editor for Neurosurgery for eLearning for Health Care (Royal College of Surgeons of England and Department of Health)
  • Member of the Leadership Committee for Trauma and Critical Care of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies
  • Independent Member of the Expert Panel on Concussion and Head Injury of the Football Association and Rugby Football Union
  • Advisor on concussion to the England Cricket Board, British Basketball and GB Rowing
  • Trustee of Headway (Brain Injury charity) and of the Midlands Neuroscience Training and Research Fund
  • Member of the Trauma Group of the British Society of Neurological Surgeons
  • External Reviewer for the French National Research Agency
  • Ad hoc reviewer for the EPSRC, MRC, NIHR and Wellcome Trust

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Logan, A, Nagy, Z, Barnes, N, Belli, T, Di Pietro, V, Tavazzi, B, Lazzarino, G, Lazzarino, G, Bruce, L & Persson, LI 2022, 'A phase II open label clinical study of the safety, tolerability and efficacy of ILB® for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis', PLOS One, vol. 17, no. 5, e0267183. <http://10.1371/journal.pone.0267183>

Chowdhury, Y, Stevens, A, Soon, W, Toman, E, Veenith, T, Chelvarajah, R, Belli, T & Davies, D 2022, 'Cerebrospinal fluid diversion for refractory intracranial hypertension: a United Kingdom and Ireland survey on practice variation', Cureus, vol. 14, no. 6, e25877. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.25877

Watson, CN, Begum, G, Ashman, E, Thorn, D, Yakoub, KM, Hariri, MA, Nehme, A, Mondello, S, Kobeissy, F, Belli, A & Di Pietro, V 2022, 'Co-Expression Analysis of microRNAs and Proteins in Brain of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients', Cells, vol. 11, no. 1, 163. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11010163

Toman, E, Riley, M, Hodgson, S, Yakoub, KM, Cooper, L, Bishop, J, Naumann, DN, Welbury, R, Hammond, D, Di Pietro, V & Belli, A 2022, 'Concussion in Non-athletes: Assessment of Cognition and Symptomatology (CONTACTS) study protocol - an exploratory cohort study investigating the utility of sports concussion assessment tools and salivary microRNAs to diagnose concussion in NHS patients', BMJ open, vol. 12, no. 9, e062030. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062030

Odland, ML, Abdul-Latif, A-M, Ignatowicz, A, Alyande, B, Ofori, BA, Balanikas, E, Bekele, A, Belli, T, Chu, KM, Ferreira, K, Howard, A, Nzasabimana , P, Owolabi, EO, Nyamathe , S, Kunfah, SMP, Tabriri, S, Yakubu, M, Whitaker, J, Byiringiro, JC, Davies, J & The EquiTrauma Collaborative 2022, 'Equitable access to quality trauma systems in Low- and Middle Income Countries: assessing gaps and developing priorities in Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa', BMJ Global Health, vol. 7, no. 4, e008256. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008256

Stevens, A, Soon, W, Chowdhury, Y, Toman, E, Yim, S, Veenith, T, Chelvarajah, R, Belli, T & Davies, D 2022, 'External lumbar drainage for refractory intracranial hypertension in traumatic brain injury: a systematic review', Cureus, vol. 14, no. 10, e30033. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.30033

Lazzarino, G, Di Pietro, V, Rinaudo, M, Nagy, Z, Barnes, N, Bruce, L, Signoretti, S, Mangione, R, Saab, MW, Tavazzi, B, Belli, T, Lazzarino, G, Amorini, AM & Logan, A 2022, 'ILB®, a low molecular weight dextran sulphate, restores glutamate homeostasis, amino acid metabolism and neurocognitive functions in a rat model of severe traumatic brain injury', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 23, no. 15, 8460. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23158460

Lanka, P, Yang, L, Orive-Miguel, D, Veesa, JD, Tagliabue, S, Sudakou, A, Samaei, S, Forcione, M, Kovacsova, Z, Behera, A, Gladytz, T, Grosenick, D, Hervé, L, Durduran, T, Bejm, K, Morawiec, M, Kacprzak, M, Sawosz, P, Gerega, A, Liebert, A, Belli, A, Tachtsidis, I, Lange, F, Bale, G, Baratelli, L, Gioux, S, Alexander, K, Wolf, M, Sekar, SKV, Zanoletti, M, Pirovano, I, Lacerenza, M, Qiu, L, Ferocino, E, Maffeis, G, Amendola, C, Colombo, L, Frabasile, L, Levoni, P, Buttafava, M, Renna, M, Di Sieno, L, Re, R, Farina, A, Spinelli, L, Dalla Mora, A, Contini, D, Taroni, P, Tosi, A, Torricelli, A, Dehghani, H, Wabnitz, H & Pifferi, A 2022, 'Multi-laboratory performance assessment of diffuse optics instruments: the BitMap exercise', Journal of Biomedical Optics, vol. 27, no. 7, 074716. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.27.7.074716

Stevens, A, Hadis, M, Milward, M, Ahmed, Z, Belli, T, Palin, W & Davies, D 2022, 'Photobiomodulation in acute traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis', Journal of Neurotrauma. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2022.0140

Davies, DJ, Hadis, M, Di Pietro, V, Lazzarino, G, Forcione, M, Harris, G, Stevens, A, Soon, WC, Goldberg Oppenheimer, P, Milward, M, Belli, T & Palin, W 2022, 'Photobiomodulation reduces hippocampal apoptotic cell death and produces a Raman spectroscopic “signature”', PLOS One, vol. 17, no. 3, e0264533. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264533

Logan, A, Belli, T, Di Pietro, V, Tavazzi, B, Lazzarino, G, Mangione, R, Lazzarino, G, Morano, I, Qureshi, O, Bruce, L, Barnes, N & Nagy, Z 2022, 'The mechanism of action of a novel neuroprotective low molecular weight dextran sulphate: new platform therapy for neurodegenerative diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis', Frontiers in Pharmacology, vol. 13, 13:983853. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.983853

Saliman, NH, Belli, A & Blanch, R 2021, 'Afferent visual manifestations of traumatic brain injury', Journal of Neurotrauma, vol. 38, no. 20, pp. 2778-2789. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2021.0182

Sokoliuk, R, Degano, G, Banellis, L, Melloni, L, Hayton, T, Sturman, S, Veenith, T, Yakoub, KM, Belli, A, Noppeney, U & Cruse, D 2021, 'Covert speech comprehension predicts recovery from acute unresponsive states', Annals of Neurology, vol. 89, no. 4, pp. 646-656. https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.25995

Glendon, K, Blenkinsop, G, Belli, A & Pain, M 2021, 'Does vestibular-ocular-motor (VOM) impairment affect time to return to play, symptom severity, neurocognition and academic ability in student-athletes following acute concussion?', Brain Injury, vol. 35, no. 7, pp. 788-797. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2021.1911001

Review article

Stevens, A, Stickland, CA, Harris, G, Ahmed, Z, Goldberg Oppenheimer, P, Belli, A & Davies, DJ 2022, 'Raman spectroscopy as a neuromonitoring tool in traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and clinical perspectives', Cells, vol. 11, no. 7, 1227. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11071227

View all publications in research portal