Headshot of Mary Doherty.

Mary Doherty

Consultant anaesthetist
Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, Ireland

Mary Doherty is an autistic consultant anesthesiologist based in Ireland, an honorary clinical research fellow at Brighton & Sussex Medical School in the United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. student at London South Bank University. She is also the mother of two neurodivergent young people.

Doherty is founder of Autistic Doctors International and Autistic Med Students, both dedicated to peer support, advocacy, research and training. She has been involved with biomedical autism research for several years, as a member of the AIMS-2-Trials Autism Representatives Steering Committee and more recently the Participatory Research Advisory Committee for the RESPECT 4 Neurodevelopment Network.

Her research interests include health care for autistic adults and the experiences of autistic medical students and doctors. Her doctoral research focuses on the experiences and perspectives of autistic psychiatrists.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Early experience reshapes zebrafish retinal cells, alters behavior

The cells undergo a classic form of plasticity previously thought to occur only in downstream visual circuits.

By Siddhant Pusdekar
13 August 2026 | 0 min watch
Research image of expression of MEIS2 in PV interneurons.

Loss of interneuron plasticity may be shared hallmark of neurodevelopmental conditions

Restoring an experience-dependent interneuron plasticity gene in adulthood improves memory and cuts seizures in CNTNAP2 knockout mice, a new study shows.

By Claudia López Lloreda
12 August 2026 | 5 min read
Structural MRI scans of people with Alzheimer’s disease and depression.

Neuropsychiatric MRI brain signatures fail reproducibility test

Small neuroimaging studies are unlikely to capture consistent anatomical changes related to conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and mood disorders, according to a new “wake-up call” study.

By Holly Barker
12 August 2026 | 5 min read