Professor Neil Spratt PhD, FRACP is a research-focused neurologist and basic scientist.
His research career has been devoted to understanding the processes underlying brain injury due to stroke and using this to improve treatment. Over his working life, he has been fortunate enough to contribute to the research-driven transformation of stroke care, so that many more patients are now able to get back to an independent life after stroke, rather than needing lifelong care.

Professor Spratt’s laboratory team has been focused on advancing knowledge of what goes wrong in the brain during a stroke, always with a view to the potential to develop new therapies. They have made a number of important discoveries, leading to the development of two novel potential therapeutic approaches to improve blood flow after stroke.

In his role with the John Hunter Hospital clinical acute stroke research team, they have pioneered approaches to guide stroke therapy using imaging, and used this in a large international study, that helped establish a new clot-dissolving therapy, tenecteplase, as standard of care for acute stroke, worldwide. He has worked closely with ambulance to improve early identification and triage, to get patients to treatment quickly, and to improve systems of stroke rehabilitation in hospital, and the community, including for poorly served rural and indigenous patients.

He has mentored many students and junior researchers from fundamental science, allied health, nursing, and medical backgrounds to career success, and several are now national / international leaders in their own right.