About
Ben Gaastra graduated in medicine from The University of Cambridge in 2013 and entered the Academic Foundation Programme in neurosciences. Mr Gaastra commenced neurosurgical training at University Hospital Southampton in 2015 and joined the University of Southampton initially as a visiting academic is 2016 and then as a Clinical Research Fellow in 2021. He was awarded his PhD entitled 'Outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage' in 2023. Mr Gaastra is now an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Neurosurgery.
He has been awarded research fellowships from the Royal College of Surgeons, Society of British Neurological Surgeons, Barrow Foundation, Guarantors of Brain and Institute for Life Sciences, working with Professor Ian Galea, Professor Nicci Campbell and Professor Diederik Bulters. He has received grants from Wessex Medical Research, the Rosetrees Trust and Ferblanc. He is a founding member of the Haemoglobin After InTracranial Haemorrhage (HATCH) consortium.
His interest is outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) and has published in Nature Reviews Neurology, Neurology and Stroke. Mr Gaastra uses multi-omic techniques to explore the pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning outcome after aSAH.