Marcus Ng, BMSc, MD(STIR), FRCPC, CSCN(EEG)

Research summary

Dr. Marcus Ng's research focuses on the anti-epileptic effect of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep against seizures, quantitative electroencephalography (EEG), chronobiology, and critical care electroencephalography (EEG).

Dr. Ng is the Director of the Dreamspike Research Laboratory, which aims to study the unique anti-epileptic properties of REM sleep. The laboratory's mission is to understand why epileptic activity breaks through the usual calming influence of REM sleep against seizures and to use this knowledge to directly help patients. Dr. Ng's research themes include sleep and epilepsy, quantitative EEG, and anti-epileptic effect of REM sleep against seizures.

Throughout his career, Dr. Ng has made numerous contributions to the field of sleep and epilepsy research and has supervised, co-supervised, and mentored over 40 graduate students, residents, and medical students in various fields.

He is a member of various research groups and affiliations, including the Critical Care EEG Monitoring Research Consortium, Sleep and Epilepsy Workgroup, Canadian Epilepsy and Mother-Infant Health Group, and the Manitoba Centre for Nursing and Health Research.

Dr. Marcus Ng is an associate professor of neurology at the Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, and an adjunct professor of biomedical engineering at the Price Faculty of Engineering, UM. He is a Diplomate of the Canadian Society of Clinical Neurophysiologists (CSCN) in Electroencephalography (EEG), a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC), and a specialist in neurology.

Dr. Ng's research interests are focused on the anti-epileptic effect of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep against seizures, quantitative electroencephalography (EEG), chronobiology, and critical care electroencephalography (EEG). He serves as the Director of the Dreamspike Research Laboratory, which focuses on understanding and applying the unique anti-epileptic properties of REM sleep.

His trainees have won international and national awards and honors, including the inaugural national anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis foundation prize, 2023 Canadian League Against Epilepsy Mary Ann Lee Award, and the Young Investigator Award of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society.  Locally, trainees have won the Manitoba Neuroscience Network prize, Henry Melmed Memorial Prize, BSc (Med) Best Clinical Research Project Award, and Oxford University Neurosciences Book Prize.

Dr. Ng is an active participant in medical education, serving as a former chief EEG examiner for the CSCN, and examiner for the Canadian Board of Registration of Electroencephalograph Technologists. He is the current vice-president of the CSCN and has also served on several committees for organizations such as the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society (ACNS), Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation, Canadian League Against Epilepsy, American Epilepsy Society, American Brain Foundation, and the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. He has been invited to editorial boards of international medical journals, review research grants and articles for several medical journals, and has lectured at the National Epilepsy Review Course and the National Teaching Course on Sleep Neurology.

Also a practicing clinical epileptologist, Dr. Ng is interested in translating insights from the clinic into new medical knowledge and understanding by publishing in peer-reviewed journals and meeting abstracts, and by presenting at academic conferences worldwide. He is also the first-author on the first-ever dedicated clinical atlas to quantitative EEG in the intensive care unit.