Profile
Professor Ruth Dobson is Centre Lead for the Centre of Preventive Neurology at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, QMUL. Her research has a focus on the roles of ethnicity, deprivation, gender and wider social determinants of health in MS, and she is particularly interested in ensuring that all people with MS are represented in research. She led the publication of UK guidelines on pregnancy in MS, and leads the UK MS pregnancy register.
She is Chair of the ABN Advisory Group for MS and neuroinflammation, is a member of the NHS England Neurology clinical reference group, and the UK representative on ECTRIMS Council. She is currently Strategic Lead for Dementia at UCL Partners, chairs the MS Trust Advisory group and is chair of the Cure Parkinson’s Trust Research Committee. She additionally chairs the Research, Culture and Environment committee for the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.
She was identified by the Royal College of Physicians as an Emerging Women Leader in 2020. In 2023 she was awarded the individual MS Brain Health award for her work in pregnancy and MS. Her research has been supported by the NMSS, MS Society, Horne Family Foundation, Barts Charity, BMA Foundation, MRC and NIHR. She has over 140 peer reviewed publications.
Research
Research Interests:
Multiple sclerosis
Gender
Pregnancy
Gender-specific healthcare
Ethnicity
Deprivation
Social Determinants of health
Epidemiology
Equity
Risk-benefit analysis
Publications
Key Publications
COVID-19 Vaccine Response in People with Multiple Sclerosis
Gene-Environment Interactions in Multiple Sclerosis: A UK Biobank Study
Ethnic and Socioeconomic Associations with Multiple Sclerosis Risk
UK consensus on pregnancy in multiple sclerosis: 'Association of British Neurologists' guidelines
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Maillart E, Hellwig K, Dobson R et al. (2026). Réponses humorales et suivi à 1 an des nourrissons potentiellement exposés à l’ocrélizumab pendant la grossesse et l’allaitement : analyses finales des études prospectives, multicentriques, ouvertes, de phase IV MINORE et SOPRANINO. nameOfConference
QMRO: qmroHref -
Jacobs BM, Vandebergh M, Maltby VE et al. (publicationYear). Interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors in multiple sclerosis: what have we learned?. nameOfConference
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McDonald J, Sharma P, Tench C et al. (2026). The association between prescribed hormonal contraception and multiple sclerosis risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. nameOfConference
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Jacobs BM, Schalk L, Tregaskis-Daniels E et al. (2026). Genetic Determinants of Multiple Sclerosis Susceptibility in People From Diverse Ancestral Backgrounds. nameOfConference
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Kelsey O, Demnitz-King H, Kenten C et al. (publicationYear). A national survey of dementia diagnosis and care in English memory services. nameOfConference
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Yeh WZ, Francis A, Cooper S et al. (2026). Optimal strategies for treatment discontinuation in MOG antibody-associated disease. nameOfConference
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Muralidhar M, Chapman H, Kelsey O et al. (2026). National survey of older people’s community mental health teams in England. nameOfConference
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Demnitz-King H, Banerjee S, Cooper C et al. (2026). The Nottingham consensus on dementia risk reduction policy: recommendations from a modified Delphi process. nameOfConference
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Zhang Y, Dobson R, Giovannoni G (2026). Comorbidity and modifiable risk factors in multiple sclerosis. nameOfConference
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Marrie RA, Dobson R, Baranzini SE et al. (2026). Toward a global research agenda for preventing multiple sclerosis. nameOfConference
Supervision
The relationship between infections and MS (NIHR funded; Emily Tregaskis-Daniels, primary supervisor)
Pathways to MS diagnosis (ESRC/LISS-DTP funded; Hiba Adan, primary supervisor)
Using simulated large-scale datasets to enable research (Caroline Morton, secondary supervisor)
EBV in ECVs in MS (Francesca Rios, primary supervisor)
Menopause and MS (Imogen Collier, primary supervisor)
Social capital in multiple sclerosis (Heather Mah, secondary supervisor)