Marta Vallejo

Dr Marta Vallejo is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University and Programme Director for the Graduate Apprenticeship in Data Science. She is the founder and lead of the ML-Health Research Group, which develops machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to improve disease diagnosis, prognosis, patient stratification, and treatment across a range of healthcare applications.

Prior to joining Heriot-Watt University, she held a tenure-track Research Fellow position in biomedical signal and image processing and previously served as Head of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at ClearSky Medical Diagnostics Ltd. She holds a PhD in Computational Intelligence and Predictive Modelling and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence.

Her research focuses on the development of explainable and clinically meaningful AI methods for healthcare, with particular expertise in neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. Her work spans medical imaging, digital biomarkers, wearable sensors, multimodal data fusion, and predictive modelling, undertaken in close collaboration with clinicians, industry partners, and patient organisations.

Dr Vallejo has led and contributed to a range of national and international research projects funded by organisations including EPSRC, CHDI Foundation, Cancer Research UK, MND Scotland, Medical Research Scotland, the Scottish Research Council, and industry partners. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of Nature Communications Biology and is a member of the Parkinson’s UK College of Experts and Euan MacDonald Centre. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.