Andrew Lees (neurologist)

Last updated

Andrew Lees
Professor Andrew John Lees.jpg
Lees during a talk in 2010
Born
Andrew John Lees

1947 (age 76–77)
Merseyside, England
Known forCreating the most widely used criteria for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease
Medical career
Profession Physician
Sub-specialties Neurology

Andrew John Lees FRCP FRCP(G) FMedSci (born 1947) is Professor of Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and University College London. In 2011 he was named as the world's most highly cited Parkinson's disease researcher. [1] [2]

Contents

Career

Lees studied medicine at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel where he was awarded the Jonathan Hutchinson Prize for Clinical Medicine, and then trained as a neurologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, University College Hospital and at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery [3] where he was appointed consultant neurologist at the age of 33.

Lees was director of the Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies at University College London from 1998 to 2012, [4] an institution dedicated to research into neurodegenerative diseases. In 1987 he co-founded the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders (QSBB), which now houses the largest collection of Parkinson's brains in the world and is where he conducted the research that led to the Queen Square Brain Bank criteria for Parkinson's disease. From 2002 to 2012 he served as director of the Sara Koe PSP Research Centre funded by the PSP Association to conduct research into progressive supranuclear palsy.

He was responsible for the introduction of apomorphine to treat advanced complications of Parkinson's disease including L-dopa induced refractory off periods and dyskinesias.

Awards and achievements

Lees received the American Academy of Neurology Movement Disorders Life Time Achievement Award for his outstanding achievements in the field of Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders [5] (2006). He delivered the Charles Smith Memorial Lecture in Jerusalem in 2000 http://psychobiology.org.il/lecture.php He delivered the Drucker Memorial Lecture, Beth Israel, Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, the Gowers Memorial Lecture at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square in 2007, the Ian McDonald Memorial Lecture in Brisbane, Australia 2008, the Lord Brain Memorial Lecture at the Royal London Hospital 2010, and the Melvin Yahr Memorial Lecture Mount Sinai Hospital New York (2010). In 2012, he was awarded the Dingebauer Prize by the German Society of Neurology for his outstanding achievement in the field of Movement Disorders. [6] In 2014 he was the recipient of the Jay Van Andel Award for outstanding research in Parkinson's disease. [7] [8] In 2015 Lees was awarded the Association of British Neurologists Medal, [9] and the British Neuropsychiatry Association Medal [10] in 2020. He received the Bing Spear Award for outstanding contributions towards Saner drug policies in 2016, and has been awarded the Parkinson Canada's Donald Calne Award and Lectureship for 2017. He delivered the 2021 Fitzpatrick Lecture at the Royal College of Physicians with the title, 'Soulful Neurology' and was the recipient of the Institute of Neurology, UCL Prize Lecture Award 2021. In the same year he was appointed the Chester L Stephens Sr. Lecturer at the University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine 2021, and in 2023 delivered the 22nd Macdonald Critchley Lecture on 'Silent Language' at [[Apothecaries' Hall, London|Apothecaries Hall, London].

Other achievements include: Council Member for the Academy of Medical Sciences, United Kingdom, [11] National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior investigator, [12] Co-founder and past President of The Movement Disorder Society, Founding Editor of Behavioural Neurology (1988- 1993), Former Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Movement Disorders , UK Government National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guidleline Development Group for Parkinson's Disease (2016-2019), [13] Visiting Professor to the Hospital Sao Rafaele, Salvador Brazil, Honorary overseas member of the Academia Nacional de Medicina, Brazil. [14]

Publications

Scientific articles

Lees is recognised as a highly cited neuroscientist on the Institute for Scientific Information "ISI Highly Cited Researchers" database with an h-index of 130 [15] and is the world's most highly cited Parkinson's disease researcher with over 23,000 citations since 1985 and co-author of 8 citation classics. [1] [2]

Media

In addition to his academic career Lees has written a book about the city of Liverpool [16] and the authorized biography of footballer Ray Kennedy. [17] Lees also served as medical advisor to Patient 39 [18] the film adaptation of a William Boyd short story and has written about how both Conan Doyle and William Burroughs have influenced his career as a neurologist. [19] [20]

Lees was a longstanding friend [21] [22] of Oliver Sacks, who also began his neurological training at the Middlesex Hospital ]], and he was acknowledged in the preface of Sacks books Awakenings , [23] a story about L-dopa treatment of encephalitis lethargica which was made into a film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams, and The Island of the Colorblind , [24] which deals with parkinsonism caused by Lytico-bodig disease.

In his memoir 'Mentored by a Madman' and 'Brainspotting' Lees explains how his career was influenced by Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes and by the self-experimentation of William S. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch . [25] He is a member of the Society of Authors

Books

Neurological Birdsong.Mirabeau Press. 2024 @MirabeauPress (ISBN 978-1735705569)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neurology</span> Medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system

Neurology is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves. Neurological practice relies heavily on the field of neuroscience, the scientific study of the nervous system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neurosurgery</span> Medical specialty of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system.

Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system.

Sidney Gilman is an American retired physician, neurologist, and educator. He is an expert on Alzheimer's disease and spent the majority of his career at the University of Michigan, its medical school, and its Health System.

Ablative brain surgery is the surgical ablation by various methods of brain tissue to treat neurological or psychological disorders. The word "Ablation" stems from the Latin word Ablatus meaning "carried away". In most cases, however, ablative brain surgery does not involve removing brain tissue, but rather destroying tissue and leaving it in place. The lesions it causes are irreversible. There are some target nuclei for ablative surgery and deep brain stimulation. Those nuclei are the motor thalamus, the globus pallidus, and the subthalamic nucleus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology</span> Academic institution in United Kingdom

The UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology is an institute within the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. Together with the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, an adjacent facility with which it cooperates closely, the institute forms a major centre for teaching, training and research in neurology and allied clinical and basic neurosciences.

Gregor Karl Wenning was a German neurologist best known for his clinical and scientific work in Parkinson's disease and atypical Parkinsonian disorders, particularly multiple system atrophy (MSA). In 2006 he was appointed Professor and Head of the Division of Clinical Neurobiology at the Medical University Innsbruck. Wenning died on 11 February 2024, at the age of 59.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Jankovic</span> American neurologist

Joseph Jankovic is an American neurologist and professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is the Distinguished Chair in Movement Disorders and founder and director of the Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic.

David Eidelberg is an American neuroscientist who is a professor of Neurology and Molecular Medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine. He is a neuroscientist best known for applying functional imaging of the brain to study neurological diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Singleton</span> British neurogeneticist

Andrew B. Singleton is a British neurogeneticist currently working in the USA. He was born in Guernsey, the Channel Islands in 1972, where he lived until he was 18 years old. His secondary education was conducted at the Guernsey Grammar School. He earned a first class degree in Applied Physiology from Sunderland University and his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where he studied the genetics of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Neurochemical Pathology Unit. He moved to the United States in 1999, where he began working at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida studying the genetic basis of Parkinson's disease, ataxia, and dystonia. He moved to the National Institutes of Health in 2001 to head the newly formed Molecular Genetics unit within the Laboratory of Neurogenetics. In 2006 he took over as Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and became an NIH Distinguished Investigator in the intramural program at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in 2017. In 2020 he stepped down as the Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and became the Acting Director of the newly formed Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias at the NIA. In 2021 he became the Director of CARD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alim Louis Benabid</span>

Alim Louis Benabid is a French-Algerian emeritus professor, neurosurgeon and member of the French Academy of Sciences, who has had a global impact in the development of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. He became emeritus professor of biophysics at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble in September 2007, and chairman of the board of the Edmond J. Safra Biomedical Research Center in 2009 at Clinatec, a multidisciplinary institute he co-founded in Grenoble that applies nanotechnologies to neurosciences.

Mahlon R. DeLong was an American neurologist and professor at the Medical School of Emory University. His research has advanced the understanding and treatment of Parkinson's disease, dystonia, tremor and other neurological movement disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yves Agid</span> French physician

Yves Agid is a neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, cell biologist, neurochemist, academician, university professor, hospital doctor, researcher in biology and scientist specializing in neurosciences.

Michael G Hanna is Director of the UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London and professor in clinical neurology and consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, and also Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Neuromuscular Disease.

(Charles) David Marsden, FRS was a British neurologist who made a significant contribution to the field of movement disorders. He was described as 'arguably the leading academic neurologist and neuroscientist of his generation in the UK'.

Subramanian Kalyanaraman is an Indian neurosurgeon and a former head of the Department of Neurosurgery at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. He was known for his pioneering techniques in stereotactic surgery and is an elected fellow of a number of science and medical academies including the National Academy of Medical Sciences and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 1969.

Ali R. Rezai is an Iranian-born American neurosurgeon and neuroscientist. His work and research has focused on neuromodulation treatments for patients with neurological and mental health conditions, including neuromodulation techniques such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) through brain chip implants to treat Parkinson's disease tremors, obsessive–compulsive disorder, Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and addiction. Recent research since 2020 has focused on deep brain stimulation for addiction treatment, as well as focused ultrasound to treat tremor, addiction and Alzheimer's disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Buzzard</span> Victorian English doctor

Thomas Lovell Buzzard MD FRCP was a Victorian English doctor who worked at the National Hospital, Queen Square. He was a pioneering neurologist who founded an epilepsy society and wrote also on Parkinson's disease. One of the last doctors to be trained through the apprenticeship route, Buzzard witnessed the Crimean War and later was a role model for the famous painting The Doctor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Jeffrey Aminoff</span> American clinical neurologist and neurophysiologist

Michael Jeffrey Aminoff is a clinical neurologist and neurophysiologist whose later clinical work focused on treating Parkinson's disease and related movement disorders. He retired in 2022 and lives in San Francisco, California.

Patrik Brundin is a neuroscientist known for his research on Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease. He is currently a Distinguished Scientist and serving as Therapeutic Area Leader for Movement Disorders at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development (pRED).

Miratul Muqit FRSE FMedSci is a British neurologist and a Programme Lead at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRCPPU) in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee. His research focuses on the study of the PINK1 gene, mutations in which are a major cause of Parkinson's disease.

References

  1. 1 2 Ponce, Francisco A.; Lozano, Andres M. (2011). "The most cited works in Parkinson's disease". Movement Disorders. 26 (3): 380–90. doi:10.1002/mds.23445. PMID   21462255. S2CID   23922271.
  2. 1 2 Sorensen, Aaron A.; Weedon, David (2011). "Productivity and Impact of the Top 100 Cited Parkinson's Disease Investigators since 1985". Journal of Parkinson's Disease. 1 (1): 3–13. doi: 10.3233/JPD-2011-10021 . PMID   23939254.
  3. ↑ "NHS find a consultant". Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Professor Andrew Lees, Emeritus Director". ucl.ac.uk. 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  5. ↑ "Movement Disorders Research Award" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "Parkinson-Krankheit: Dingebauer-Preis für Professor Heinz Reichmann (Dresden) und Professor Andrew Lees (London)". Archived from the original on 27 September 2013.
  7. ↑ "Professor Lees receives Jay Van Andel Award for Outstanding Research in Parkinson's Disease". Archived from the original on 1 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Jay Van Andel Award".
  9. ↑ "ABN Medal".
  10. ↑ "British Neuropsychiatry Association founded in 1987". British NeuroPsychiatry Association. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  11. ↑ "The Academy of Medical Sciences | Directory of Fellows". acmedsci.ac.uk. 2011. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
  12. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ↑ "PARKINSON'S DISEASE National clinical guideline for diagnosis and management in primary and secondary care" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2013.
  14. ↑ "Jornal do Brasil - Ciência e Tecnologia - Andrew Lees fala de avanços no tratamento de Parkinson, no Rio". jb.com.br. 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  15. ↑ "Highly Cited Researchers".
  16. ↑ Hurricane Port. ASIN   1780575483.
  17. ↑ Ray of Hope. ASIN   0140172610.
  18. ↑ "Patient 39".
  19. ↑ "Hanging out with the molecules".
  20. ↑ "Paging Dr. Sherlock Holmes: Please report to neurology". Los Angeles Times . 5 September 2013.
  21. ↑ "One is always nearer by not keeping still". Archived from the original on 30 January 2016.
  22. ↑ "Brain Matters" (PDF).
  23. ↑ Sacks, Oliver (29 May 2013). Awakenings. ISBN   9780307834096.
  24. ↑ Sacks, Oliver (16 June 2011). The Island of the Colour Blind. ISBN   9781447204947.
  25. ↑ "Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment". Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.