DrSophie Morse

Dr Sophie V Morse is an Assistant Professor and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the Department of Bioengineering and the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial College London. 

Her group looks at how we can non-invasively modulate cellular activity, particularly that of our brain's innate immune cells as well as peripheral immune cells, to find new ways to treat and delay the onset of disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases, cognitive decline, and tumours. 

During her PhD, she developed ways to improve the delivery of drugs to the brain using focused ultrasound and microbubbles. This is a local, reversible and noninvasive technique which can help in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases.

Her research has been supported by an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship (2020), The Brain Tumour Charity (2021), the European Talent Academy (2023), an Imperial College Research Fellowship (2022-25), a UK Dementia Research Institute Pilot Award (2024-25), and the Royal Society (2023-25). Her current work is funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences, Astro Brain Fund, and the UKRI. She is currently a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow (2025-Present) and an Emerging Leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial College (2023-Present). 

AWARDS

2026 - Imperial President's Medal for Outstanding Early Career Researcher 

2025 - Future Leaders Fellowship - UK Research and Innovation 

2024 - Women of the Future Award - Highly Commended in the Science Category
2023 - Engineering and Technology Lecture Award - British Science Festival
2023 - Italy Made Me Award
2022 - Top 50 Women in Engineering (WE50) Award - Inventors and Innovators
2021 - Young Investigator Award from European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
2021 - William James Award from Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET)
2021 - Best published paper prize from European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
2020 - Young Investigator Award from British Medical Ultrasound Society
2019 - Gold Medal in Engineering and Westminster Award (overall winner) at STEM for Britain in the UK Parliament.
2019 - Won competition on Image-guided therapy at EU Symposium on Ultrasound Contrast Imaging in Rotterdam, Netherlands